Stone in Love
by Oxnate
Summary: Buffy and the Slayerettes failed – they all died. But they get a second chance.
1. Chapter 1

Stone in Love

by Oxnate

Disclaimer: Do not own Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Gargoyles. My title this time comes from the song Stone In Love by Journey.

Summary – Buffy and the Slayerettes failed – they all died. But they get a second chance.

Challenge response: Defenders of the Night - _So the challenge should be obvious, but I'm gonna state it. I'm looking for a "Gargoyles"/BTVS cross. While there are some really good stories with this cross out there, I'm looking for one that doesn't involve the now ubiquitous YAHF label..._

* * *

Chapter 1.

Gentle reader, there are many dimensions in which Buffy Anne Summers truly existed and was a Vampire Slayer. The timeline you are aware of, however, is one of only a handful in which Buffy and most of her friends survived the Hellmouth. The trouble is that, all too often, Buffy and her friends survived only by luck and the skin of their teeth. But the odds never lie; and in most dimensions, the Slayer and most of her friends eventually died.

We join such a dimension shortly before such an event.

* * *

Catherine Madison was busy cheering for her team just like she had 20 years ago. "Go, Sunnydale, go." wasn't much of cheer, but she had several years to improve the cheers and the gymnastics of the team and take them all the way to State (again). But she was interrupted in her multitasking – planning while cheering – when a flash took her away for a moment. She did her best to continue to cheer. She didn't realize what was happening until the third and longest such flash. They were trying to pull her out of this body. The body that she'd liberated from her good-for-nothing daughter, Amy. She could tell that they were in one of the science labs and took off through the doors immediately, ignoring the sounds of anger and confusion from her teammates who wanted to make a pyramid with her. This was more important. She could make up some excuse later, once that Buffy bitch and her friends were dead.

* * *

Xander and Willow followed Amy out of the gymnasium. Maybe Buffy and Giles had been successful at Amy's house and had found Amy's spell book and were already undoing the spell that was killing Buffy. It was all they could think of since no one had bothered to tell them that they'd actually found Amy trapped in her mother's body there, along with Catherine's spell book.

They found the science lab Buffy and the others were in just in time. It looked like Amy's mom was about to cast a spell of some kind – hopefully a protection spell – but Amy was about to interrupt with an ax. Xander charged forward.

* * *

Giles finished the spell with only seconds to spare before Catherine-in-Amy nearly chopped Buffy in two. He decided he was horribly out of practice when it came to magic. Then again, there was a good reason he'd sworn off the dark arts. Meanwhile, the girl with the ax staggered as she found herself back in her body and Giles sighed in relief. But he forgot that putting Catherine back in her place, placed her right next to him as well as a goodly number of sharp implements. He was unable to defend himself from her surprise attack and received a scalpel to his shoulder for his oversight. He cried out in pain and slumped against the wall, grabbing the injured appendage. He pulled the blade from his arm and then tried to staunch the bleeding with a handkerchief tied one handed with his other arm.

As soon as Giles hit the wall, Catherine turned her sights on Buffy who was getting up from the table and looking mighty pissed. Buffy might be a super-powered demon fighter, but she had no natural defense against magic. With a wave of her arm, Catherine sent Buffy into a wall where she slumped to the floor.

Then she turned her sights on Amy who was still holding the ax Catherine had been holding when she had been in that body though she didn't look like she could use it to chop a piece of wood in half, much less a human being. "Foolish girl!" Mrs Madison hissed. "You dare to stand against me? I am a mountain and I will bury you in an avalanche!"

Just then, Xander ran in and tackled Amy (now back in her own body) to the ground.

"Xander! What are you doing?" Buffy asked as she got to her feet.

"Saving you?" At least he thought he was. He looked from a very scared and sore Amy and back to Buffy who just shook her head.

"More fools." Catherine looked where Willow was standing just inside the doorway. "From rock to sand to dust and back again. Corsheth! As hard as their hearts are against me, make them so from head to toe!"

A great wave of magic passed over all of them. Catherine took a moment to admire her handiwork. But only a moment. She had to get back to the- No. She didn't have to get back to the game. She had lost Amy's body. It was now and forever more a statue. She knelt and traced the outline of her daughter's granite jaw where the statue laid on the ground, then sighed and turned to leave the school.

* * *

A few hours later:

Puck came out of the mirror above the teacher's desk. It was almost certainly the only magic mirror in the world that was mounted in a high school science classroom but he liked it there. He was learning all sorts of interesting things through it. None of the other gods and demigods knew anything about covalent and ionic bonds. None of Oberon's other children understood that this knowledge was part of what had made him more powerful. His actual power hadn't increased, but knowing HOW stuff was done allowed him to use less power for the same effect. Other demigods just threw magic at their problems until the magic solved the problem for them. Easy, but wasteful of energy.

Just now though, he wasn't pleased at all by the things he had learned through the mirror. He looked around and frowned at the five statues now decorating the room. "No, no, no, no. That's not the way it was supposed to go at all. Perhaps a witch of Catherine's caliber was too much of a challenge for you so soon. But what's done is done." he sighed and looked out the window at the setting sun. The grin that cracked his face could not be called friendly. "However. Perhaps there is a way to give you all a second chance. Now don't mess this up. Because you're not going to get another shot like this, I promise you." he told the unhearing granite.

Then he began to chant. "Stone you currently are and stone you again will be. But the night is yours for now to do with as you please." He smirked as the sun set and the stone skin of the newly made Gargoyles started to crack. Then he jumped back into his mirror to watch the fun.

* * *

A/N: Catherine Madison was a super strong bad guy and way too tough for the third (or second as the first was a 2-parter) episode of the series. By all rights, Buffy and the Slayerettes (as they were then known) should have been wiped from the face of the earth by such a powerful witch. And now they are. Sort of.

Also, an ordinary mirror should have had zero chance of reflecting a spell like that. Only a magic mirror should be capable of that sort of thing. Which is how I thought of Puck and a way to change our heroes into monsters.

And finally, my muse dines on your reviews! Keep her fat and happy.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Please note Gargoyle wings in the cartoon were tiny. Not even enough to glide were it not for cartoon-physics. The ones I'll describe are probably still too small actually, but closer to what would actually be needed to do more than go SPLAT on the concrete below. More information on the wings and other thoughts on Gargoyles – which will probably contain hints/spoilers for this story – can be found in the Series Info screen. (on TTH)

* * *

Chapter 2.

Xander yawned and stretched. What a weird dream he'd just had. Amy had been a witch and was trying to kill them all and then her mother had cast a scary sounding spell. There had been darkness and a bright tunnel. And then the tunnel disappeared and it was just like waking up from a bad dream. He opened his eyes and was very confused. He wasn't in his room. He looked around.

And that was when the screaming started.

"Ahhhh!"

"Ah!"

"Eek!"

"Monster!" There was pointing going on all around.

"I'm not a monster! You're the monster!" More pointing.

Xander would recognize that last voice anywhere. Willow.

"Willow!?" he said as he sat up. The monster in front of him was wearing Willow's clothes and had red hair, but that was where the similarities stopped. For example, Willow did not have green skin or glowing, red eyes.

"Xander!?" the Willow-voiced monster asked. Its face contorted in confusion and the red glow started dying down. Her Xander-shaped friend (as Buffy had put it earlier that day) was no longer Xander-shaped at all. In fact, he looked kinda demony-shaped. The glowing, white eyes were a dead giveaway.

Xander looked next to himself on the floor where a blonde haired monster was cowering with a fireman's ax. "Amy?"

She nodded. "I think my mother-"

"Giles!" Buffy not-so-dulcetly screeched and cut off Amy's explanation. The monster in question looked over to see another female monster. But its hair was not blonde as Buffy's had been and instead a soft chestnut. It was looking at its talons. "She turned us into monsters!" the Buffy monster screeched.

Giles got to his feet, pulling off a blood stained handkerchief and examining the torn shirt beneath. He was astonished to find that the rather serious wound he had just received was no more. He rolled his shoulders as he stood and wings snapped out to either side. Neither side was at all wide enough for them to fully expand though and he clumsily tried to retract them. All four other monsters in the room quickly started looking over their own shoulders for evidence of wings. Wings and tails started moving clumsily this way and that as the monsters got used to moving their new appendages.

"I don't think we're monsters, Buffy." the British librarian said rather more calmly than he felt.

"Giles! I look like the things I slay!" Buffy complained. She was in the back of the room and could see the mirror over the teacher's desk reflecting her image back at her. At least her eyes had stopped glowing red. That had been... shudder worthy.

"We're not monsters, Buffy." Willow said as she examined her own delicate wings, the small horns above her eyes, and the pieces of stone 'shell' around their feet. "I think we're gargoyles."

* * *

The newly christened gargoyles were gathered around the main table in the library. Gargoyle Amy was still clutching her ax like a security blanket. Never mind the fact that her talons were now likely stronger and sharper than the ax.

"As Willow was saying, I don't believe we are monsters. Obviously, we each remember who we are and none of us have the desire to feast on human flesh. Correct?" He asked while Willow typed carefully on the keyboard. Her second keyboard, they had borrowed it from another computer after her new talons had accidentally destroyed the first. "The council has been tracking this since they've reemerged. But Slayers are not the only force fighting evil in the world, just one of the strongest."

"Wait, what happened to 'One Girl in all the World'?" Xander interrupted.

"Well- well there's obviously only _one girl in all the world_ who's the Slayer at any given time. You didn't take that to mean that there's only one person in the world fighting demons and evil, did you? Because that would be ridiculous. We'd have been overrun by demons millennia ago." Giles shook his head at that silly notion.

"Oh? Uh, no. Of course not." Xander denied quickly.

Giles nodded. "If I may then. Where was I? Not the only force fighting evil. Yes. Many centuries ago, there were beings known as gargoyles who guarded humans while they slept. They were living creatures that turned to stone during the day. Over the years, many clans of gargoyles took up residence on castles."

"You mean that those statues on castles and churches are flesh and blood?" Buffy looked unconvinced. She was pretty sure she had seen lots of those statues at night when they would have been alive.

Giles shook his head. "Not all of them. In fact, almost none today are. At first, many were imitations rather like species that imitate poisonous relatives to ward off predators. And more and more became imitations as true gargoyles became rarer and rarer, falling into myth and legend. The council has recently become aware that a clan has become active in New York city of all places." He indicated the computer screen where Willow had brought up a whole host of pictures and news articles about gargoyles and people in New York who they had saved and/or attacked depending on which article you read. Apparently, she'd been following this story as well. "There's also a largish clan in Japan that hasn't been killed or gone into hiding. Yet." he finished.

"So, gargoyles are good guys? Were you planning on telling me this before or after I slayed one?" Buffy prodded.

"Before. Obviously." Giles frowned. "But seeing as you weren't planning on traveling to New York or Japan any time soon and they didn't look to be coming here presently either, I thought it best not to confuse you with the idea that not all that stalks the night might necessarily be evil. As there is almost certainly nothing attracted to the Hellmouth that you wouldn't want to slay on sight. Anyway, back to the point, gargoyles are not evil."

There was several seconds of silence after that. "That's it? Your point is that gargoyles aren't evil?" Xander asked exasperatedly.

"Well, that was the point I wanted to make before Buffy attempted to slay us all. Which seemed rather prudent at the time." Giles shrugged. "Now that she knows not to slay us, we can discuss other things."

"Like changing us all back?" Buffy pointed out.

"I vote for chopping her head off this time. The spell book thing didn't quite cut it last time." Xander said coldly.

"Indeed." Giles nodded.

"I- I- I'm not sure that will work." Amy spoke up.

Willow went over to Amy, her dark green skin and red hair contrasting with Amy's dark golden skin and pale blonde hair. "I know she's your mother, Amy, but-"

"No." Amy cut her off. "I mean, I know she's powerful, but I don't think she's _this_ powerful. And I don't think her spell would have turned us into gargoyles. It sounded like we were going to be turned into stone."

"Which is what gargoyles spend their days as." Giles pointed out. He was holding onto hope that the witch had done this, simply for the children's sake. Quite frankly, any other cause of this situation would likely be beyond his ability to research, much less his skill to undo. Not that he would tell them as much.

"So, we find the witch and slay?" Xander gently took the ax from Amy at last.

"_I_ slay." Buffy said, taking the ax from Xander somewhat less gently.

Xander frowned but decided against playing tug of war with the ax. "Says who? 'Cause newsflash for you Buff, but ya ain't the Slayer no more."

Buffy looked down at her mottled brown and green body.

"Oh, dear lord. He's right Buffy. Poor grammar aside. For the time we were stone, it is entirely likely that the Slayer essence deemed you deceased and moved on to the next Slayer."

"Wait. So I'm free?" Buffy asked incredulously.

Giles shrugged noncommittally. "Possibly. Once we are returned to our true form, we can call the council to confirm. But for now, perhaps you and Xander can arm wrestle. If the two of you are close in strength, then it is likely that you are no longer the Slayer."

Xander agreed and sat down across from Buffy. They both gently put their elbows on the table as everyone's elbows and knees now held rather sharp, boney spikes. Xander had been expecting to either slam her hand into the table or get his own slammed down but that was not to be. For whatever reason, he hadn't been mentally ready for gargoyle strength from both of them. A quick surge by Buffy was met by him and forced their hands back to the middle. Buffy redoubled her efforts and Xander responded. Soon both of them had their wings rigidly propped out from their backs but still folded. They also had their talons and elbow spikes digging into the table to gain more leverage, each trying to push the other's hand through the hard wood.

Giles broke them up. "Alright. That's enough to prove that Buffy is no longer the Slayer."

Buffy huffed as she let go and stood up. "So now what?"

"Well, we need to end this spell yet. The only way left to us." he looked sadly at Amy.

"It's alright. I understand. She stole my body from me. Twice now. But would you mind if I stayed here? I don't think I could actually do it." Amy requested.

"Me too?" Willow added. "I don't think I could... _do it_ either." Also, she didn't want to leave Amy alone. She really needed a friend right now and while Willow hadn't been that great of a friend recently – _what kind of friend doesn't notice when that friend gets possessed?_ – she could be that friend for her now.

Giles nodded. "Of course. We'll be back before daybreak even if we can't find her. Hopefully we'll know the spell is ended when we all change back. In the mean time, Willow do you think you could start helping Amy research this? Just in case." She nodded and he turned to leave. "Where are you going?" he asked the two who were supposedly coming with him but were instead walking in the opposite direction.

"To the roof of course." Buffy answered, pointing up.

"Yeah. The one time in our lives where we have wings," Xander unfurled his slightly, as much as he could with other gargoyles and furniture in the way, "and I'm not going to miss out on taking them for a spin."

"Oh very well." Giles sighed and followed the children to the roof.

* * *

The staircase up to the roof was old and rather narrow. Luckily Giles had a key so they didn't need to break in, but the climb up was tight and rather cramped. Stepping onto the roof, the three of them instinctively separated before unfurling their wings fully.

"Ow, ow, ow!" both children started yelling.

"Come over, let me see." Giles said. Both children came over and turned their backs and wings to him. "Ahh, I see the problem. The holes our wings made in our clothing were not large enough to accommodate the rest of the webbing once the wings were unfurled."

"In English?" Buffy asked the night sky. She felt a slight pressure, then heard a ripping sound and felt a slight breeze on her back. A second ripping sound hit her ears a second later. She gave a soft mew at the sound of her top being ruined. Well, ruined more than it had been already.

"It means that there is webbing on our wings that extends down to each of our hips. Without this, we would not be able to fly." Giles said as he repeated the process for Xander.

"I'm going to kill her." Buffy growled. "Kill us, turn us into monsters. But ruining my clothing is just evil."

Once Buffy had ripped Giles' clothing, they all spread out and opened their wings again. Each wing was huge. Nearly twice each of their heights. So each of their combined wingspans measured no less than 24 feet across and Xander and Buffy both had longer wings than Giles. For reference, a residential street with two lanes for driving and one for parking generally measures 28 feet from curb to curb.

The wings jutted from the gargoyles' backs rather like another set of arms. The muscles that powered the wings were quite large. Especially the ones closest to the back, where most of the leverage came from. If you've ever eaten a chicken wing, you'll note that there is a lot of meat/muscle right where the wing joins the rest of the body and there is less muscle the further down the wing you go. The same is true for gargoyles. Right on their back and the first foot or so of the wing are large and powerful muscles – their biceps, so to speak – that are very strong. The rest of the 'arms' come out like normal arms until you get to the 'hands'. Gargoyles evolved with only 4 digits per limb and the wing is no exception. Three digits in each wing are elongated and connected by a flexible membrane which also connects to the body from 'armpit' to hip, making up the wing. When they spread the digits of these 'hands' the wings unfurl. The fourth digit, what we could call the thumb, sticks up from the wing and can be used for many things. Not the least of which is hanging onto each other when not in use to keep the wings out of the way; either behind the back or in front of the chest. Hanging the wing arms over their shoulders and hooking their 'thumbs' together make the wings look rather like they are wearing a cloak wrapped around them.

"St. Buddha, these things are huge!" Xander exclaimed as he finally got to stretch his wings out.

"They must be in order to support our weight without our falling out of the sky." Giles replied, also examining his own wings.

Buffy gave hers a test flap and found herself blown backward into Giles. Or rather Giles' wing, but he used the new appendage quite skillfully to put her back on her feet/claws/whatever. She flashed him a fangy smile of thanks then looked around. "Wow. I've never been up here before. You can see the whole town from up here." Buffy noted.

"Yes, yes. Now if we can get on with jumping to our deaths?" Giles said kindly but sarcastically. "I will go first and the two of you will follow me. We will be landing short of the Madison house as this will be the first time for all of us landing and it's likely to be a bit rough. Don't be embarrassed if your landing isn't perfect. Any questions?"

When there were none, Giles turned and ran for the roof ledge. Reaching it, he crouched and pushed off with all his might. It surprised him just how high he was able to leap in his new form. He guessed it had to be 15-20 feet off the already tall building. At the apex of his jump, he snapped his wings open then dove. Shortly above the level of the roof, his wings caught the wind properly and started to provide lift as he glided away. Glancing backwards, he saw the other two following his example. An instinctual flick of his tail adjusted his course over the residential streets. Not having to follow the mostly grid-layout of the main streets of Sunnydale would save them considerable time. And the heat of the day radiating off the houses and streets was giving him added lift. He gazed far off to where he could see the subdivision the Madison house was in. He was surprised to find Buffy and Xander pull even with him. "How-?"

"We have _wings_, Giles." Buffy chided gently. "Flap them occasionally and we'll get there faster." she grinned, showing off her new, sharper teeth.

"We'll get there soon enough just gliding and we'll be less tired for it." Giles countered.

* * *

Xander watched as first Giles and then Buffy launched themselves from the roof without crashing to the ground and dying painfully. _Okay. He could do this. Just stop thinking about it- run and... jump! _ His mental reminder came almost too late as he nearly overran the edge of the roof. Newly empowered muscles launched him up in the air with terrific force, nearly leaving his stomach behind in the process. He spread his new wings instinctively, they caught the air and gave him support as he floated above the city.

The sensation is hard to describe to those who don't have wings. If you can remember your childhood and had a parent who would lift you in the air by your arms, it's a bit like that. Except that the wings were attached to Xander's entire torso by webbing so it felt more like laying on a giant trampoline and doing a Superman pose so that only your stomach was supported by the nylon. The webbing connected down his side pulled his stomach taut with the force of the air pushing his wings up. Every minute change in his wing shape had an effect on his flight. If you've ever held your hand out the window of a car going at highway speeds and felt how moving your hand in the wind provided lift or downforce, you have a slight idea what that felt like to Xander.

Speaking of Superman... Xander grinned as he thrust both fists forward and started humming the Superman theme song from the old TV show. "Da da daaah, da datadata daaah!" Then, "Look! Up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane! It's Xanderman!" He glanced up ahead but neither of the other two gargoyles looked back so they probably hadn't heard him. He tucked his wings back against his body and could actually feel the improvement in aerodynamics reflected in his airspeed.

As he looked up ahead, he saw Buffy beat her wings a couple of times. Xander gave the signal to his own wings to copy her and instantly regretted it. Not only did he nearly leave his stomach behind on the downbeat, though it wasn't quite as bad as when he jumped off the roof, but at the apex of his trajectory he felt that completely weightless feeling and nearly lost the meager contents of his stomach anyway.

He settled his wings and started gliding again. He wasn't sure he ever wanted to do that again and rested for a few seconds as his stomach settled. Up ahead he saw Buffy was flapping again and gaining on Giles. Xander set his jaw. He couldn't let Buffy think he was weak. Too weak to fly. He steeled himself and started flapping away, ignoring his stomach's protests until they went away. Which was about the time that he and Buffy caught up with Giles.

* * *

"I have a question." Xander spoke up. "Out of the five of us, including three girls, why am I the only one who's colored purple? I mean, I would have been fine with anyone's coloring except my own. Why is that?"

"Because you're picky." Buffy teased. "I think it's a pretty color."

"I look like Barney." Xander complained.

"An evil, scary version of Barney, maybe." Buffy quipped back.

"I say! I resemble that remark!" Xander laughed. "Besides, Barney is evil enough on his own."

"Too right." Buffy agreed.

"No one knows how gargoyle colorings are chosen. It seemed to be somewhat independent of their parents' colors, if what I remember from my books is correct." Giles broke in before a fight could start. Still, he was happier with his royal blue coloring and didn't begrudge Xander his discontent with his colors. Luckily, the good-natured bickering helped pass the time and meant that they weren't brooding on the fact that they'd just been transformed into monsters, "Here we are." he started diving towards a park. He tried to land like he would an airplane, slowing as he reached the runway, and then using his feet like wheels, gently slowing him as he ran. Unfortunately, his feet couldn't keep up with his landing speed and he crashed, going head over heels several times before finally coming to rest. He looked up from his back to find Xander and Buffy backwinging expertly to land gently next to him. Well, more gently than he had in any case. Xander hit rather hard but still stayed on his feet. Buffy's landing was arguably flawless.

"Don't be embarrassed if your landing isn't perfect." Xander parroted back at him with a grin.

"Oh, do be quiet." Giles said as he climbed to his feet and tucked his wings around him.

"You okay, Giles?" Buffy wondered somewhat worriedly.

Rupert checked himself over as his wings folded up on his back almost automatically. It was surprising that such large wings could take up relatively little space when folded properly. "None the worse for wear it seems. Though next time, I think I shall attempt your type of landing."

"Hopefully there isn't a next time." Buffy said coldly as she fingered the ax she had carried from school.

"Quite right. Shall we?" he motioned towards the Madison house.

* * *

Willow pulled the books she thought were most likely to hold clues to undoing their transformation and set them on the table in front of Amy. She knew that Giles was probably just trying to keep them busy so they didn't think about what had just happened. But unfortunately for her, her mind was more than capable of focusing on two things at once including a thought at the back of her mind that went over changing her name to 'Mrs. Xander Harris' over and over again. That particular thought had been running nonstop since the 1st grade – a new world record, though nobody knew it. Even as she searched, she couldn't help but think that this was all her fault. She was supposed to be Amy's friend. Probably Amy's best friend. And she never even noticed that she'd been switched out for her mother? What kind of horrible person didn't notice when someone switched bodies with their friend? She shook her head. She wouldn't brood on this. Giles and the rest would fix it and then everything would be like it was. Until then, she would concentrate on the books like Giles suggested. She picked up a book and started reading, pouring all her concentration into it.

* * *

Amy wished and hoped and dreamed that this wasn't happening. That her mother hadn't just turned them all into stone and possibly monsters. It was all her fault. She should have fought harder. She should never have let her mother steal her body. Not that she'd _let_ her in the first place. If only she hadn't been such a coward and fought back _at all_. Just like in the science lab, she hadn't fought at all. She just stood there like an idiot until Xander had tackled her. And why shouldn't he have? She'd been holding an ax and hadn't done anything with it. She hadn't even _tried_ to stop her mother.

She sighed as Willow set some very thick and old-looking books in front of her. She was grateful for the distraction as she sat down to read.

* * *

A/N: I despise the "Xander-shaped friend" trope. But this time and this time only it's appropriate, because Episode three is the one and only time it's used in canon.

A/N2: Do not own the evil purple dinosaur named Barney. Or Superman.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Thank you to ShadowMaster for pointing out that I hadn't made it clear what form everyone's wings took. I rewrote Chapter 2 a bit to make it clearer. If you don't want to re-read that, just know that everyone has bat-like (AKA Goliath style) wings. No one has pterodactyl-style (Demona) or flying squirrel (Lexington).

* * *

Chapter 3.

Xander knew in the bottom of his heart that whether killing Amy's mom worked or not, he would probably never be happy anywhere except in the air. After the initial stomach lurching of his first few minutes, he had rapidly grown to love the feel of air under his wings and the feeling of complete freedom they gave him. He wondered how much it would cost to get his pilot's license. Then he shook off such thoughts for later. Once he was human again. He wanted that, right? To see the sun again but never again to feel the wind beneath his wings. Now that he'd felt the real thing, the song 'Wind Beneath My Wings' was never going to be the same again. He shook his head again to clear the confusing thoughts.

Xander wasn't particularly thrilled with the plan Giles came up with, but he had to admit it probably had the best chance for success. Better than anything he could think of anyway. The problem was that it left him out of the action. His only job was to ring the doorbell and then run away. Like a very intense version of ding-dong-ditch, where both sides were trying to kill each other. With the witch distracted, Buffy and Giles would jump (rather easily) to the second story and sneak into Catherine's magical sanctuary and either kill her as she walked in or wait until she slept and kill her then.

Buffy was only mildly disappointed that she couldn't punch Catherine Madison in the face. Then again, she'd fought the witch once already and remembered being flung into the wall without being able to touch her. An ambush was just what the witchdoctor ordered in this case. Suddenly, the tune 'Witch Doctor' got stuck in her head. "Ooo eee, ooo ah ah, ting tang, walla walla, bing bang." she hummed quietly.

Giles smirked at her before making a shushing gesture.

* * *

Catherine Madison sat alone in a darkened living room, staring at a blank TV screen. Today had not been a good day. She had killed her only daughter for starters, an act that filled her with terrible regret. Not the killing her daughter part, the part where she could no longer use that younger body. She should have controlled herself better and exempted her daughter from the spell. Then it would have been possible to switch with her again. After that, this aging body could have been easily disposed of. Now she had no easy access to a younger body where she could seamlessly integrate into the person's life like she had her daughter's. She started to plan whose body she would steal next. It would have to be a girl who already showed some skill in gymnastics. Possessing Amy had at least proven that Amy hadn't been faking being uncoordinated. Even _she_ hadn't been able to get that girl's body to move right. She started musing on which of the middle school girls she knew she whose life she would best be able to fit into. She was going slightly younger this time to give herself a chance to-

DING-DONG

The sound of the doorbell startled her from her reverie. She wondered who it could possibly be. Visitors in Sunnydale after dark were either nefarious or naïve. She rather hoped for nefarious. She needed someone to take her frustrations out on.

She opened the door to find... no one. She didn't stick her head out into the night as her wards didn't extend beyond the door frame, but she did look all around the open door frame, both down and up the street. Nothing. Then an alarm went off in her head. Literally.

After finding her sanctuary violated by the Buffy bitch and her friends, she put a new ward on her attic room. Nothing that would keep people out, that would be too noticeable to practitioners of the craft, but one that would warn her when someone broke in. Apparently, Buffy's little gang had had backup and knew that she was behind their deaths. A feral smile crept over her mouth. Time to spring the trap. Who knew? Maybe she'd find a suitable body to inhabit this time?

* * *

The doorknob turned and Buffy readied her ax, the extra reach would be useful even if it wasn't as strong or sharp as her new talons. The door swung inward and Buffy swung her ax, just below head height, hoping to lop the witch's head off with a minimum of fuss. But she didn't connect with Catherine's neck. She didn't connect with Catherine at all. There was nothing there but air and the ax buried itself in a stud behind the drywall of the hallway. Buffy looked down the hall and saw the witch standing there in shock. She'd turned the knob with magic, so she'd been expecting the ambush, but she clearly hadn't been expecting gargoyles. Buffy's heart fell just a bit at that revelation. If she'd meant to turn them into gargoyles, then she shouldn't have been so surprised to see them. Buffy saw the witch start to perform some hand motions. "Get back!" she yelled to Giles as she dove back into the room just in time to avoid a fireball sailing through the doorway. Luckily, it hit the brick wall and didn't immediately start a house fire, though a few smaller fires were started around the room from the splash of the fireball on the bricks, which could easily get out of control if not handled quickly.

"Get out." Buffy ordered her watcher. This ambush was a bust and between the crazy witch and the fires she'd started, Buffy didn't want to hang around right now. She and then Giles bounded from the attic window and snapped their wings open. The momentum from pushing off the house gave them enough lift that they didn't drop very far by the time they flew out and away, once they were out of sight of the Madison house they turned and double backed to the park where they originally landed; their designated meeting place.

They'd expected Xander to be waiting there, but he was nowhere to be found.

A few minutes later, they saw a very dejected looking gargoyle walking their way. His coloring hid the fact for a minute, but once he was close, it was clear that he was covered in blood.

"You guys are still gargoyles too, huh?"

"Xander, what happened?" Buffy asked, touching the blood-soaked gargoyle tenderly.

"I tore her head off. There was a lot of blood."

* * *

Xander had only seen Buffy in action a few times, but he knew that she was good. But he also knew that backup was better. Not that he was discounting Giles, but an attack from the rear was always good for surprising your enemy. Okay, so he learned that from watching the History channel at Willow's house and playing role playing games with Jesse, but it was true no matter where he learned it.

So after he rang the doorbell, he hid just as planned. But when he heard the door close, he ventured a peek and saw Catherine look straight up at the attic as soon as Buffy entered. It took only a half second to realize that she'd heard something and decide what he was going to do. The witch had thankfully left her front door unlocked when she'd went up the stairs. Xander followed her quietly. When he heard Buffy yell 'Get back' he charged. He was too late to stop the witch from sending her fireball, but he hit her just as the fireball exploded on the brickwork of the wall. He knocked her to her stomach where her head hit the floor hard enough to knock her out. He was then standing on her back, trying to figure out how to take off her head, he hadn't brought any tools. Then he looked down at his hands. Those were tools ready-made for killing. Hands that would never know a girl's touch because the witch underneath him had turned him into a monster.

Anger flared through his body as he drove his talons right through her spine. There was a lot more blood than he'd been expecting and a lot of it sprayed right in his face. And then since Giles had said 'beheading' and he was clearly still a gargoyle, he grabbed her head with both hands and pulled. He hadn't cut cleanly through her esophagus with the first blow therefore her esophagus pulled her lungs and her stomach up when he pulled the head off, but he cut those off as well until he was holding just her head and standing on her body. His shoulders slumped when he realized he was _still_ a gargoyle.

He looked ahead (no pun intended) at the fire growing in Catherine's attic then looked down at his handiwork. He dropped the head back by her body and left it and the house for the fire to claim.

* * *

"Umm... that was well done, Xander." Giles praised lightly as they used a neighbor's garden hose to clean Xander off. He wasn't sure if he should praise such violence from anyone but his Slayer. But then again, she was no longer a Slayer and they had needed to kill the witch. More to the point, it was clear that Xander was having more than a few qualms about having killed a person and he didn't want to intrude. So he gave gentle support. Hopefully enough that he didn't feel bad about killing the witch that had effectively killed them, but not so much that he became a serial killer.

Xander lifted his wings so that they too could be sprayed off. He knew that the water hitting him was freezing cold, but he could barely feel it. He wondered if he just felt nothing because he was numb from killing Amy's mom or if it was a feature of gargoyles. He'd ask Giles later.

They flew back in silence, each of them lost in their own thoughts.

* * *

It was all his fault, Giles groused. He'd been a fool to give up magic. There were good reasons for his departure from the craft, but look where it had gotten him. Not even a month into his assignment and not only did his charge die (not unheard of) but also himself and three innocent students. Perhaps this was why council raised Slayers were not allowed to have friends? So that said friends didn't go down with the Slayer when she perished? Perhaps he could have dissuaded them more strongly? Perhaps. Or perhaps they would have clung all the stronger. Who could say?

What he could say for certain was that having Amy-in-Catherine help him with the spell was a huge mistake on his own part. He should have had her tied up and unconscious before he ever started the spell. Preferably in a guillotine. Then again, hindsight was always 20/20. And hopefully there was a way to reverse this spell in all those books of his. Catherine's spell book was unfortunately lost to them now. He hadn't thought to grab it as he and Buffy escaped and Xander had left everything to burn.

He promised himself that he'd find a way to undo this spell and give the children a normal life again.

* * *

Xander fingered the silver pendent around his neck. It was all his fault. He'd prayed for the strength to fight the creatures of the night and he'd gotten it. In spades. He could still feel how easily he'd parted Catherine Madison's head from her shoulders. Perhaps it had been a mistake to pray to Saint Dymphna, the patron saint of the mentally disturbed, but that was the pendant his mother had given him. Actually, come to think of it, he wasn't even sure they were Catholic. They only went to the Catholic church for Easter mass and they went to the Episcopal church for the midnight service on Christmas Eve.

He shook his head to clear the stray thoughts. It was still his fault for praying for strength. He would even have been willing to pay the price of never seeing the sun again if it meant helping Buffy with her Slaying. The trouble was that he'd never meant for his friends to get trapped in this curse with him.

* * *

It was all her fault, Buffy was near to tears. Somehow knowing you were the Slayer and someday you were going to die was easier than knowing you were a gargoyle and had trapped every person in town who had been nice to her in this nightmare as well. And what would her mother say? It had been easier not to think of what her mother would do when she died. She assumed there would be tears, but she wouldn't be alive to see them. But now, 'hey mom, I'm a monster' just didn't sound pleasant.

* * *

"Well?" Willow asked as the other three entered the library. Obviously they were still gargoyles. But was it because they couldn't find her or because the spell was permanent?

"She's dead." Buffy told Amy who burst into tears. Evil, murderous, bitch or not; she was still Amy's mother.

"How?" Amy managed to get out.

"Xander got her." Buffy gave credit. "But not before she started throwing around fireballs. She kinda burned down your house. Sorry... again."

Amy ran to Xander... And hugged him. "Thank you." she whispered.

Xander was completely gobsmacked. Between the shock of having killed someone and the unexpected gratitude from the victim's crying daughter, his brain just couldn't handle it. "Uh, you're welcome." he said automatically as his arms went around her of their own accord.

"So, what do we do now?" Willow asked as she glared daggers at Amy's back for hugging Xander too long.

Giles reached up for his glasses to clean them and realized they were gone. Still, his vision was excellent, especially into the shadowy places. He realized that the lights were actually off in the library and despite that, everyone could see just fine. He wondered for a moment just how good his night vision might be now. Considering they had no need for daylight vision, it could be excellent, without the normal tradeoff that went with such things. But that could wait. "Well, the first thing we need to do is get some food." Giles decided. "It's going to be a long night. After that, we have to decide where we want to spend the day."

"Huh?" Buffy looked over.

"Ooo! Let me! I've been researching." Willow pleaded then went on at a nod from Giles. "Gargoyles hibernate during the day in stone form. Apparently it's just like sleep. They even dream, supposedly. But they need to do that in the sun. Somehow the sun's rays energize them during the day. It's where our super strength comes from."

"Super strength? Seems pretty normal to me." Buffy quipped, flexing her taloned hand in front of her face.

"Buffy, the rest of us were not able to leap 20 feet into the air this morning." Giles chided. "Please continue, Willow."

"That's pretty much it. We need someplace secure but still in the sunlight. We need the sun but we're vulnerable to attack during the day." Willow said.

"Which was why gargoyles historically guarded castles. It was a mutually beneficial arrangement. The humans guarded the gargoyles during the day and the gargoyles guarded by night." Giles explained.

"So, why did they stop guarding castles?" Buffy wondered.

Giles shrugged. "No one knows for sure. There are a few reports of humans turning on gargoyles, but those are few and far between. Certainly the advent of catapults, trebuchets, and cannons that could knock down castle walls and smash gargoyles from afar didn't help."

"We're going to need a human we can trust aren't we?" Buffy asked. Surprising herself with how quickly she was already thinking of humans as 'other'.

"Yes, that would probably be a good idea." Giles nodded. "But like I said, let's all return to my flat for a meal and we can decide from there. Amy, Willow, are you ready to try flying?"

Amy, who had eventually pulled herself from Xander, nodded stiffly as she wiped her eyes.

Willow let out a small 'meep' but it was either fly with the others or walk by herself at that point, she nodded too.

* * *

A/N: Not sure who owns "Witch Doctor" but it's not me. Tell me you aren't humming, "Ooo eee, ooo ah ah, ting tang, walla walla, bing bang" even now.

A/N2: Saint Dymphna really is the patrol saint of the mentally disturbed. And in season 1, Xander does wear a small, silver pendant that looks a lot like a Catholic Saint's pendant. However, I've never seen a clear picture of it so I had to come up with the Saint on my own. Though I'm still curious. Can anyone tell me what his pendant is really of?


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: A shout out to redrook who created an account on TTH for the sole purpose of leaving me a review. Awesome!

Chapter 4.

"Oh my god. That was amazing!" Willow gushed as they landed in Giles' courtyard. "I can't believe I was afraid to fly!"

"Shush, Willow. People are trying to sleep. And I would rather they didn't look out their windows right now." Giles shushed her as he landed as expertly as the others.

"sorry." she whispered.

They made their way into Giles' apartment where he laid out bread, meat, condiments, and drinks. "Make yourselves some sandwiches. I'll be down in a minute."

* * *

"We've got it Giles." Buffy said when he returned from upstairs. "We find a park and then just let ourselves turn to stone there. People will think we're just statues and leave us alone. Vamps can't hit us in the sunshine and when we wake up, people will already have abandoned the park. 'Cause, you know, vampires."

Giles nodded. "That isn't a bad idea, Buffy. But what's to keep the park commission from removing the unauthorized statues during the day? And who knows what might happen then? Whether we get smashed on purpose for being unauthorized 'art' or whether they accidentally drop one of us...?" he let the implications for that settle on everyone. "Perhaps in a bit, we can come back and decorate this fair city. Though first I'll want to order some carved gargoyle imitations and have them left around town and see what happens to _them_ first."

The children nodded at the wisdom of that idea.

Giles went on. "Soon enough, we'll approach someone we think we can trust with our secret. However, it's too late to wake someone for that."

"What about our parents?" Willow asked.

Giles sighed. He'd forgotten that each of the students had guardians who cared for them and would miss them if they didn't return tonight. He didn't want them thinking about parents, or anything in their old lives right now. Such thoughts might lead to brooding. Brooding would lead to depression and he would do his utmost to keep them from that. "Thank you for reminding me. Is there a way you can call and tell them not to worry about you for a day or two?"

"I can call my folks and tell them I'll be staying at Willow's for a few days." Xander shrugged. "My voice hasn't changed that much, has it?"

"And I'll call my folks and tell them I'm staying at Buffy's!" Willow said a bit too excitedly.

Buffy smiled at the enthusiasm of her new friend. "And I'll call my mom and... well, I hope she'll let me stay over at Willow's. Not like there's much I can do if she won't let me."

"Tell her you're staying at my place instead then." Amy said. "If she says no, then at least Willow won't go down with you when she figures what's up. Better than your parents calling each other and figuring out about both of you."

"Thanks, Amy." Buffy put a gentle hand on her other new friend's shoulder.

"Very well. Make your calls quickly, please. It's been a rather exciting night already and I would rather spend the rest of the night looking for a spot to rest for the day. Here." he pulled out a map and pointed. His other hand tapped out a nervous rhythm on his leg. He wanted to get going and avoid giving the children too long to think. Keep them busy until they accepted their new lot in life. Keep their hopes up with promises until it became too obvious to deny. Not that he would stop looking for a cure, but with Catherine dead and her books burned, there would be no quick fixes from this.

"Los Padres National Forest." Buffy read. "That scrub-land just north of Sunnydale?"

"It's 'scrub-land' around here because the trees were logged off over a hundred years ago. But Los Padres is an immense place with a wide variety of habitats from scrub-land and desert to old growth sequoias, nearly 2 million square acres. And while it gets several million visitors yearly, most of those never go more than a hundred yards from the nearest road or campsite."

"In other words, if someone had say, a set of wings," Xander put in, "they could find a place far from any trails and settle down for the night. Or for the day."

Giles nodded. "Precisely. There are several areas we might try. Including some old growth Jeffrey Pine stands. Though, I'm not sure how much they might shade us without providing adequate cover from prying eyes on the ground. What I'm really aiming for is something called Chaparral. It's a type of dense scrub-land vegetation which should shield us from prying eyes on the ground while still allowing for good sun penetration from above. Still, we won't know until we get there. I suggest we be off?"

* * *

After making their calls so their parents wouldn't worry for at least one more day, they exited the apartment and followed Giles as he jumped first to one level and then the second. Xander and Buffy had a contest to see who could jump from the ground to the rooftop without hitting the first story first. Both made it, which only started an argument about who had jumped higher. "Ahem. If you two are finished?" Giles raised an eyebrow. He waited until they were sufficiently chastised then he jumped high above his apartment block and snapped his wings open. The children followed suit just behind him, heading north. As they neared the hill that marked the beginning of the forest, Giles started flapping to gain altitude. However, it soon became clear that even flapping hard, they were none of them going to make it over the first hill overlooking the town.

Giles found himself letting out a low growl of frustration. Then he dove, he didn't even look back to make sure the others were following, trusting that they would follow on their own and would instinctively learn how to control their new wings and tails. Just above the vegetation which only sparsely covered the earth below, he pulled up until he was gliding just over the tops of the brush as it grew up the hill. Up and up he went, though soon enough he was running out of momentum. Without even thinking about it, he folded his wings behind him and landed. Then he started running, not on two legs, but in bounding leaps on four legs. It was amazing to him how fast the brush moved past him, especially considering that he was running sharply uphill. He reached the top, settled for half a moment into a great crouch and bounded up just as far as he could again before snapping open his wings again to fly. Behind him, the snap of several other pairs of wings told him that the others were following. He gave a quick glance back to make sure that everyone made it.

He became slightly alarmed when he didn't see Buffy behind him but just as he was getting ready to turn around a shadow passed over the moon. He looked up to see Buffy. She must not have followed him and instead had flapped hard enough to pull her smaller frame over the hill using only her wings. A stab of pride hit him, she was going to be a phenomenal flier, he was sure of it.

* * *

Buffy floated through the air with the greatest of ease. When everyone else had had to get out and push, she just kept on flying. Small hairs on her wings fed her a wealth of information about the air nearest her and her night vision allowed her to see bugs and bats that would normally be invisible to her. Their movements told her about the air currents all around her. She could almost see said air currents themselves. She floated up to avoid a gust that was about to blow in her face in the 50-75 feet of altitude range. Above 80 feet there was a slight tailwind she caught, which gave her a slight push.

Below her she saw her the group forming up instinctively in a staggered line behind Xander, who had the next biggest wings after her. But she could see he didn't have her vision. He was flying at about 55 feet. All he had to do was drop 10 feet and he could lessen the wind he was fighting against dramatically.

Instead he pressed on.

Buffy sighed. She didn't feel like shouting down instructions. And she felt that learning to ride the air currents was like learning to ride a bike. No one could tell you how to do it, you just had to do it and learn as you went.

* * *

The Jefferey Pines were certainly not what the gargoyles wanted. Too open underneath. They weren't even all that good as take off points as the mess of branches starting midway up the trunk was an impediment to launching yourself for flight.

Other stands of different trees were even thicker. Offering no more protection from prying eyes on the ground and even more limbs to obstruct take off. They left to look at Giles' promised land, the chaparral.

The problem with the chaparral was finding somewhere to land. 'Thick' didn't begin to describe the woody scrub. After several minutes of circling, Giles called out, "Wait for me to clear a place to land," then folded his wings tightly and fell. Not terribly far or fast as the chaparral was only 7-9 feet tall where they were. He crashed through the woody branches and hit the ground. Contemplating his new talons for the first time, he swiped them at the nearby vegetation. They ripped through it like a hot knife through butter. Soon enough he had a small area cleared and was pushing the scraps to the side when Xander, Amy, and Willow landed nearby.

They all looked up to see Buffy way too high to contemplate landing. But she folded her wings anyway and started falling feet first. Then her wings flared, but not in a flat plane like normal, they seemed to twist around her like a barber's pole. She began spinning as she fell. As she fell, she started spinning faster and faster and started falling slower and slower. All the gargoyles in the small clearing had to push themselves up against the sides of the clearing in order to not get smacked in the head by Buffy's wings as she lightly touched down and eventually stopped spinning.

Giles rubbed his temples. The girl was too dramatic and showy by a factor of ten to ever be an effective Slayer. But don't ever say she didn't have style.

"Wow, that was fun!" Buffy smiled when she finally stopped spinning.

"How are you not sick?" Willow wondered.

"Figure skating. They teach you how not to be sick while spinning really fast." Buffy explained.

Giles walked over to the indentation Buffy's spinning had made in the earth and brought a bunch of kindling he'd broken off from the nearby plants. "Very graceful, Buffy. Now, I wouldn't normally be lighting a fire here as the chaparral is much too quick to burn, but I think we could all do with the psychological comfort it can bring." And putting action to words, he put a piece of the vegetation he'd just cleared to the indentation made by Buffy's spinning landing. The heat from the friction of slowing her down made the small stick smolder, smoke, and finally burst into flame. He used that flame to light a small pile of sticks without any tinder at all showing just how quick to light it was. Then he piled on larger and larger sticks until they had an established fire going and a nice bed of coals.

* * *

The gargoyles all sat around the fire. "Gargoyles lived in large family groups called clans for several thousands of years." Giles began.

"Family groups?" Buffy said with a sniff. "What about inbreeding?"

"I'm not sure. The books I have didn't cover that or at least I don't remember if they did. More research will be necessary. May I continue?" Giles answered. "Now, the first thing I would like you to consider is that we should form a clan here and not try to meet or integrate with the other clan in New York just yet."

"Why shouldn't we try to meet them?" Willow asked.

"_Yet_." Giles reiterated. "And I don't want to meet them _yet_ because despite our new physiology, we are all still human at our cores. We have human thoughts and follow human norms and customs. Gargoyles have gargoyle thoughts and follow gargoyle customs. Do you see where I'm going with this?"

"Not really." Buffy said with furrowed brow. "I think you're going to have to spell it out."

Giles sighed. He really didn't want to spell this out. "It goes back to your earlier point about inbreeding. We don't _know_ how the gargoyles avoided that. Perhaps they didn't and that's why there's only a few clans left. But back when humans lived in tribes and clans of that size, one way they avoided inbreeding was by capturing women from neighboring tribes."

All three women made similar faces of shock, horror, and outrage.

"You think that they'd-"

"Eww!"

"..."

"No. I don't _know_ that they'd do that." Giles interrupted. "In fact I'm _fairly_ certain they would not. But I would rather not take the chance with something like that. I would like the opportunity to do more research and also train all of you in combat before we meet them."

"Training?" Xander perked up at that thought.

"Combat training?" Willow looked slightly apprehensive. "Why?"

"For several reasons. The other gargoyle clan in America appears to have at least five members as well. At least five that venture out from their roost, which might or might not be the whole clan. And secondly, the Hellmouth is now unguarded. All of your loved ones who still live here are now much more vulnerable to attack than they were just the other night." And those were just the reasons he was speaking out loud. A huge, underlying reason was simply for something to do. An action to take. He couldn't let the children stop and think about what happened or they might slip into melancholy that might take weeks to snap out of, if they ever did. Which was why he kept pushing them, pressing them to act. After a few nights- days of sleep, the risk would diminish as they saw that they could still lead lives as gargoyles – different lives – but lives none the less.

"Unless we do something." Buffy added resolutely.

Giles gave a small smile. His Slayer had accepted that she still had a sacred duty, Slayer or not. And where one leads...

"I'm in." Xander said quickly following Buffy's example.

"Me too!" Willow said right after him, ever following Xander. She had her reservations, but if Xander was in, so was she.

"Does this mean we're giving up on changing back?" Amy asked.

"Not at all. The first and most obvious way to change has eluded us but that doesn't mean that we might someday soon figure a way back. In the mean time, however...?"

Amy nodded solemnly. "I'm in."

"Very good. We are a clan then. Next we need a leader." Giles said.

"Ooo! I nominate Mr. Giles!" Willow said.

"Do we vote for the leader?" Buffy wondered.

"Thank you Willow. Anyone else?" Giles said.

"I don't know, I suppose we could. We're kinda making it up as we go." Amy said.

"Xander. Say 'seconded'." Willow ordered.

"Seconded?" Xander queried.

"Very well, seconded." Giles said. "All those in favor?" he raised his hand. Eventually, everyone else raised theirs too, some with more understanding of what was going on than others. Giles looked up at the stars in the night sky. "Right. We have several hours before sunrise. Any volunteers for training?"

Surprisingly, Amy was the first to stand up, with Buffy and Xander following just behind her and Willow grudgingly standing as well.

"Wonderful." Giles smiled a rather fearsome grin. Then he started twisting and turning his body in various ways. The kids looked at him, then spread out and also started to stretch. "What? Oh, no. I don't think you need to stretch. The stone sleep will heal any injuries you might have while training. I was just trying to figure out how this new body works and how to adapt the fighting styles I know to them. Buffy, if you could assist me?" Buffy stepped forward. "I'm going to attack you. I want you to perform a hip throw on me, okay?"

She nodded and he threw a punch. She blocked it expertly and used his own momentum to throw him over her hip. But then she overbalanced and crashed down on top of him.

"What the heck?" she cried as she got to her feet.

Giles also got to his feet. "That was what I feared. Our bodies are somewhat dissimilar to our human forms, not even counting our wings and tails. That's three new limbs we all have to learn to deal with. Our feet are also quite different to their previous forms, you'll note that we're all naturally standing on the balls of our feet with the heels forming something like a reverse knee. We'll all have to learn how to use our feet all over again as well."

"So much for all my shoes." Buffy pouted.

Giles smiled at the joke more because it was a show of good spirits than because it was funny. "My apologies, Buffy but it looks like we're all starting back at square one. Still, I think a familiarity with the forms should give us both a slight boost." He then set about designing a brand new martial art and teaching it to the children all at the same time. The moves were less important than the fact that they were doing something, anything, that didn't involve thinking about their current situation. And beyond that, the exercise was good for teaching all of them about the ways their new bodies worked. Giles swished the new muscles in his tail to help him maintain his balance as Amy tried a move on him.

* * *

It was nearing morning, they could all feel it, a stiffness slowly creeping up on them. The fire had long since been put out by Xander falling on it during training, though none of them had really noticed. Their eyes adjusted rapidly to the darkness such that they could quickly see much better without the fire than they had been able to with it.

"Well, I suppose we should get ready for our stone-sleep." Giles said. He unfurled his wings slightly and took up a ferocious pose.

"You do what you gotta do, man." Xander said as he curled up near the northern edge of the clearing, putting him in place to absorb as much sunlight as possible from the southern winter sun.

"What are you doing, Giles?" Buffy asked with a raised eyebrow.

"It- well it- it's traditional for a gargoyle to assume a ferocious posture to scare off potential- I look silly don't I?" Giles relaxed into a normal stance again.

"Only to us." Buffy said. "Come on. I think Xander's got the right idea. If we're going to be rocks, we should imitate rocks."

Xander hadn't actually been trying to imitate a rock, he'd just been trying to get comfortable before going to bed. And when in Rome... So if he was an animal, he had decided to try laying down like an animal does. Luckily it turned out to be pretty comfortable. He looked to his right as Amy laid down and snuggled up next to him then to his left as Willow did the same thing on the other side. Buffy snuggled next to Willow and Giles next to her, not quite touching the others as he was unsure of the propriety of such an action. And thus did the five gargoyles greet their first sunrise. Disguised to all the world as five rocks in a clearing.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5.

The next evening, the small clearing was showered in shell-like pieces of stone as five gargoyles woke up.

"Man, that's the most refreshing sleep I've ever had." Xander said as he stretched and wiped a few flakes of stone from his skin.

"Right. Just like we talked about yesterday. Buffy and I are going back to town to see if we can talk to Joyce. Have either of you reconsidered talking to your parents?" Giles asked.

"Very much no." Xander said firmly.

"Nah. My mom would just say it was a phase I was going through." said Willow.

"Very well then. Anything else we should gather while we're in town?" Giles queried. He was both saddened and relieved that the two children were making such a clean break from their old lives. It would make acceptance of their current (and possibly future) lives easier but it spoke to problems in their old lives that they were dissatisfied with. Particularly their parents.

"Clothes?" Amy put forth. Just one night of their clothes putting up with the stress that gargoyles put on them and the light training they had finished the night with, had left their clothes looking decidedly tattered though surprisingly clean. Stone sleep apparently doubled as a laundry service for clothes you were wearing; though it did not, apparently, double as a tailor as all the rips and tears were still there. All of them had tears in their shirts where their wings had torn through. Those that were wearing pants or long sleeves also had tears in their elbows and knees from spikes in those areas that had poked through.

"Food?" Xander suggested. Feeling refreshed and not feeling hungry were two different things.

"Clothes yes. Food, no." Giles suppressed a chuckle when Xander's face fell at that revelation. "You are, all of you now, apex predators and this is a National Forest filled with wild game. I expect you can work out what to do." That and worrying about whether or not they would eat that night was preferable to worrying whether or not they would ever be human or not. At least for now.

"You want us to hunt?" Willow gasped. "You want us to kill Bambi?"

Giles caught Buffy smirking just a bit. "Don't look so smug, Miss Summers. Whether or not you or I eat tonight also depends on them successfully hunting while we're gone. We are a clan now and either we all eat or we all go hungry." Giles failed to hide his smirk as Buffy's face also fell. One day of going hungry wouldn't hurt any of them and would give them proper motivation to hunt. If they were unsuccessful tonight, he would join them tomorrow night. And if that didn't work, then they would raid someone's fridge, though preferably not Joyce's. Although, again, thinking about food was preferable to thinking about other things. "Any other questions?"

"Yeah." Buffy said with her arms crossed. Clearly not happy at the direction the conversation had gone in. "How the hell are we getting out of this place?"

Giles looked around. It was true, this was going to be a bit trickier than average. He had purposely cleared as small a space as possible to reduce their effect on the land as well to as make their camp harder to spot. The chaparral was very dense and rather tall in this area. That was, after all, the reason he'd chosen it. It would be very hard for anyone to get to. The bushes around them varied from about eye height (on him) to a bit taller than that all around them. They were also on a slight slope. He went to the highest point in their clearing and turned around to look downhill. He carefully unfolded his wings and extended them up and back behind him, then gave a short hop. It was less than a full leap and he was across the clearing. He crouched and gave a full leap then – both upwards and forward. This time at the apex, instead of snapping his wings open and letting them fill with air on their own, he powered his wings downward as hard as he could and the ground fell away below him. A few more flaps with all his might and he had enough height that he could circle lazily with the heat of the day providing an updraft for him to gain height on while he watched Buffy imitate him. Once she was successfully in the air, he led the way back to town.

* * *

"I say everyone goes hungry until Giles wises up." Willow suggested.

"Not a chance." Amy scoffed. "I'm not going hungry just because Disney warped your mind. Lucky for me, Mom thought Disney was evil and wouldn't let me watch it. Ironic, I suppose." she got a little melancholy at that.

"Fine, you go hunt, Xander and I will wait here." Willow said.

"Heck no. I'm hungry, Will." Xander chuckled.

"Have you ever hunted before?" Amy asked him.

"Nope. You?"

"Yeah. A couple times when I was 12, right before the divorce. Dad took me out and I got my first deer." Amy said proudly.

Xander bowed. "I defer to your wisdom, oh great huntress."

"Cool, let's go." Amy said and started unfolding her wings to take off like Giles and Buffy had. She noticed that Willow was also doing the same. "I thought you were staying here?"

Willow flushed. "I- I don't want to stay by myself." she admitted.

"Fine." Amy sighed. "But no spooking the animals. I'm not in a very good mood right now and if you cost me a meal, I'm eating your wings dipped in buffalo sauce. Got it?" she finished with deadly seriousness.

"Got it." Willow swallowed.

* * *

"Giles. I've changed my mind. I want to go back and kill Bambi." Buffy whined as they stood in front of her house.

Giles stopped walking and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Do you really wish to leave your mother wondering what happened to you Buffy?" He wasn't entirely sure why the other children wouldn't want to inform their parents, but he had a hunch. Buffy, at least, had a kind and caring mother.

"This is so unfair!" Buffy pouted.

"Nor is it fair to leave her in the dark." Giles countered. If he hadn't seen the populace's reaction to the Harvest, he would have been quite adamant that Willow and Xander both tell their parents as well. "At least this way, even if she doesn't believe you, at least _I_ won't be blamed for your disappearance. She'll blame it on some monsters."

"Blame you?"

"Buffy. One teacher and four students suddenly go missing. It certainly isn't going to be blamed on the students. If I'm lucky, the papers will count me as another victim and not as the perpetrator of some heinous acts against students." It also occurred to him later the first night that all of their last calls could be traced to his flat. Not an auspicious way show his innocence.

"Why would they say that?" Buffy wondered.

"Oh, they probably won't. But one does wonder these things. And the American papers are notorious for their muck-raking. Luckily, I'm not famous enough for such efforts. I suppose it was a silly worry." Giles gave a small smile at that thought.

Buffy took his arm. "Come on. Let's go convince my mom that you're not a scary kidnapper and just an inhuman monster."

"Buffy..." Giles could only sigh at his charge's antics.

* * *

_It was all too easy,_ Amy decided. They found a meadow with a herd of deer browsing the foliage in the fading twilight. They were on alert, watching all around themselves and swiveling their ears around searching for threats in the growing darkness. Except that the threat wasn't coming from the woods or the fields around them. It was coming from above and was almost perfectly silent. She did a wing over and dove. She could feel Xander behind her but was pretty sure that Willow was continuing to circle.

The buck never knew what happened. She landed astride his back, grabbed his antlers, and twisted until she heard a crack. She lifted her head as Xander landed lightly beside her. All the other deer had disappeared into the woods.

"Interesting hunting method." Xander chuckled.

She shrugged as she stepped away from her prey. "It worked, didn't it?" she looked at the deer. "We should probably field dress it. I don't suppose you brought a knife?"

Xander held up his taloned hand spread like the tools on a pocket knife. "A few."

Amy looked at her own hand. "Oh. Yeah." She looked up as Willow also landed. "You two should watch me as I field dress this guy. So you can do it next time."

"Next time?" Willow squeaked.

"You're a gargoyle, Willow." Amy said, not unkindly. "Sooner or later, you're going to have to hunt for your food. Or if what Mr. Giles says is right, you may have to fight demons instead. Better to get over any fear of blood you have right now."

Willow looked like she might turn green at the mere thought of blood... if she hadn't already been green to begin with.

"Okay. First, make an incision from the breastbone to the pelvis. The important part here is not to nick the intestines. Cause doing that is really smelly and makes the meat taste funny." Amy demonstrated that carefully with her claws. "Next you reach up into the body cavity and cut the esophagus so the rest of the guts can come free."

Xander mumbled something that neither of the other girls could hear.

"Next you take out the heart and liver as they're the tastiest organs and the ones we want to keep." she met action to words and handed the bloody organs to Xander.

"Then you- break the pelvis," Amy grunted slightly with the effort, but did so barehanded. "and cut around the penis, testicles, and anus. Finally, you tip the body over and all the guts fall out. All you have to do is cut a few connecting tissues at the back. And presto, your deer is field dressed. Though we should really hang it up and let the blood drip out for a bit." She contemplated for a minute. "Willow, do you want to hold the heart and liver or help me drain this guy?"

Willow looked from Xander holding the bloody organs to Amy who also had bloody hands and arm but the outside of the deer was otherwise free of blood and she decided she could probably avoid getting blood on herself and her clothes easier by helping Amy. She was guaranteed to get blood on her hands holding the organs but if she could just grab the animal's fur then maybe she could stay clean. Together, they hoisted the deer into a nearby tree. The deer was surprisingly light to Willow and she was pretty sure she could have hoisted it herself, but the trick was hoisting it without getting covered in blood. Once the deer was secured, they gently returned to the ground. Where they found Xander with the heart and most of the liver. He was still chewing, but swallowed as they approached.

"Xander, did you just eat raw liver?" Willow made a face.

"I was hungry." Xander defended. "And you guys were taking forever."

"It was two minutes! Whatever. At least you didn't eat the heart." Amy said as she took that organ with her own bloody hand. "My dad told me that there are any number of ancient peoples that believed that consuming the heart of your prey gave you their strength but only if you were the one to make the kill. And then back at camp, he cooked the heart of the deer I'd killed that day for me. He had some steak, but the heart, he said, was for me since I killed it. Best meal I ever had. Rule one of hunting in a group is that whoever makes the kill gets the heart." She looked at the heart for a bit, lost in memories. Then she bit.

"Amy!" Willow cried.

"What?" Amy said as she chewed.

"It's, uh... raw?"

Amy swallowed and looked at the bloody organ she was holding as if for the first time. "So it is." she took another bite. Just a few more bites and it was gone. "Still delicious. Better than I remember even, and that was pretty damn good."

Willow couldn't keep her mouth from hanging open.

"Did you want some liver?" Xander offered the redhead.

"Yeah, but cooked." Willow surprised herself. When she'd woken up yesterday morning, eating liver – even cooked – was _way_ down on her list of things to do.

"Fine, but you're going to have to carry it back to camp cause I'm not sure it would make it all the way in Xander's hands." Amy said.

Xander didn't even bother to challenge the point.

Once the deer was drained to Amy's liking, she and Xander took it down. Then with each of them helping to carry the deer, they launched themselves into the night.

* * *

"Do you have a plan?" Giles asked as they stood in front of Buffy's house.

"Sort of. I want to start talking to her through a door or something. Anything so that she can't see me but she'll know that it's still me. Should help convince her when I actually reveal myself." Buffy said.

"That sounds like a good idea. Would you like me to come with you?" he offered.

"Why don't you wait by the back door? Come in if you hear screaming or catch her if she tries to run. I don't want her running through Sunnydale alone at night." Buffy said before she stepped onto the front porch. She paused at the front door as much from the clenching fear in her stomach as to give Giles time to get around the house. Opening the door, she stepped through.

"Buffy?" came the call from the kitchen. "Where have you been?" Joyce asked worriedly.

Buffy raced for the kitchen door and got to it before her mother could. She held it closed as her mother tried to open it. "I'm sorry, Mom."

"Buffy! Open this door this instant. You skipped an entire day of school today. Along with your friend Amy, I found out. And her house burned down with someone inside it. Do you know what that looks like, young lady? The police were here. I didn't know what to tell them." Joyce's voice broke. "Buffy. Just tell me what's wrong!" she cried. She let her forehead rest against the unmoving door as her tears pooled in the doorway.

"I'm so sorry, Mommy." Buffy cried against her side of the door. Suddenly feeling very small indeed no matter how much she'd grown. She could feel her mother lean against the other side. "I don't suppose it would help if I told you that I was there but I didn't start the fire. Amy's mom did. The problem is she was a witch."

"The woman is dead, Buffy. I'm not sure that name calling is appropriate." Joyce admonished, wiping her eyes and nose. She turned around, leaned against the door, and let herself settle to the floor.

Buffy could hear the tears in her mother's voice and the _SWICK_ of a lighter going. "I'm not saying it as name calling. I'm saying she really was a witch. She's why we were absent and why I'm holding the door right now. Because I'm not human any more." Buffy said. By the time she was done talking, the smell of tobacco wafted through the door and it was clear that her non-smoking mother was smoking.

"Buffy, just because you killed someone by accident doesn't make you less of a person, less of a human. You're still human and you're still my daughter. I promise, we'll handle this together." Joyce assured her. Then the door was suddenly yanked away from her and she ended up laying on her back looking up at the ceiling... looking at a monster.

"Hi, mommy."

* * *

A/N: Do not own Bambi or Disney


	6. Chapter 6

A/N: Thank you to TAO and war for Recommending my story. You guys rock!

* * *

Chapter 6.

Joyce found herself on her back looking up at the ceiling... at a monster towering over her.

"Hi, mommy." the Buffy-monster waved wickedly clawed talons. "You said we'd handle this together..."

Joyce spun herself so she was facing it and pushed away so she was in a sitting position to look at the monster who was wearing her daughter's clothes and had her voice. She wanted to scream. She should have been screaming but for the shock of the bizarre situation.

"I wasn't kidding about Amy's mom being a witch and turning us into monsters." the Buffy-monster said sadly.

"Us?" Joyce latched onto the idea. Anything besides thinking about how her daughter might be this thing in front of her.

"Me, Amy, Willow, Xander, and Mr. Giles." Buffy said. "The long story is complicated and you wouldn't believe it anyway. But the short version is that Catherine Madison was a witch. A witch we underestimated. One minute we're fighting her and the next minute – BAM! Monsters."

"And that's when you burned down her house?" Joyce wondered, trying to organize her thoughts and get to her feet at the same time. The monster didn't do anything as she stood up. Just as soon as it turned its back, she would be running.

"No. We went there to try and undo the spell." Buffy left out that beheading was how they were hoping to undo it. "But _she_ ended up lighting her house on fire and then she ended up dead. Then we took off. 'Cause there's no way we were getting a fair trial – or any trial for that matter – looking like this."

Joyce just stared at the thing in front of her. It sounded like her daughter, it talked like her daughter, it was even wearing the same clothes her daughter had been wearing the other day... That was it! It wasn't her daughter. She felt so relieved. Her daughter wouldn't be caught dead wearing the same outfit two days in a row. She couldn't remember the last time Buffy had worn fewer than two outfits in a single day. Relief flooded over her, then panic as to where her real daughter was. But she was also filled with determination now. She'd find out. She grabbed a frying pan out of the nearby drying rack. "Where's my daughter?" she yelled as she beat the monster about the head.

"Oww! Mom! What the hell? I told you, _I'm_ Buffy!"

"Where's my daughter? Where's my daughter? Where's my daughter!?" Joyce repeated as she banged away faster and faster. Suddenly, the pan was ripped from her hand. She turned around to see who had taken her weapon.

"This _is_ your daughter." a cultured British voice told her, except that it too was coming from a monster. A very blue monster.

Joyce turned back around to look at the other monster who was now sobbing in a chair. "That can't be my daughter. I haven't seen Buffy wear fewer than two outfits in a day since she was 13. And usually three or four." As she heard herself say her own idea out loud, the silliness of clothing as proof hit her. That really was a weak reason.

"Mom! Jesus! I just got turned into a monster and you think my first priority is clothes?" Buffy screeched. It hadn't been her first priority. More like third or fourth, not that she'd admit that right now.

Giles wisely decided to stay silent about how upset she had been about never wearing shoes again.

"Buffy?" Joyce asked tentatively.

Buffy just nodded and tried to swallow past the lump in her throat.

Suddenly both women were crying and embracing and talking over each other such that Giles couldn't follow a thing being said. He turned back to the kitchen, both to give them some privacy and to put away the pan Mrs Summers had been trying to beat her child to death with. Not that she was likely to have been successful. The pain Buffy had felt at such a thrashing was likely to be more psychological than physical. Especially in her new form. On his way back to the living room, he picked up the remnants of a smoldering cigarette, though not before it left a scorch mark on the linoleum. He breathed deeply of the relaxing vapors and held his breath as he turned around and walked to the back porch. He didn't want to smoke in the woman's kitchen, never mind the fact that she'd lit the fag.

* * *

The three of them were flying back to camp. Xander and Amy still had the deer between them, which was interesting/complicated the way they did that without tangling their wings. Willow was licking her talons clean after finishing the raw liver she'd been holding. She couldn't believe how good that had tasted. She thought back to the last meal she'd had. The sandwich at Giles' place had included cooked and processed meat and bread. It had been okay, but she doubted any of them had stopped to actually taste their meal, they had all been in too great a state of shock.

She ran her tongue over her new teeth. The very large canines at the front and the molars that were comparatively sharper than she'd had as a human, made it clear to her that they were all now carnivores. Whether they were obligate carnivores like cats who couldn't really process any plant matter or whether they were facultative carnivores like dogs who could only consume _some_ plant matter remained to be seen. Though the eating of bread the other day and not getting sick was a good sign. She was pulled from her musings by motion up ahead of them on the ground.

She dropped down and back to where Xander and Amy were flying together. Flying together while carrying a heavy, non-aerodynamic load seemed to be slowing them down. "Xander, it's a bear!" she pointed excitedly.

"Yeah, it's trying to get into a bear-proof barrel." Amy was the one who answered. "Don't worry, he'll get bored and wander off on his own soon enough."

"Poor guy is probably hungry." Willow went on as if she hadn't heard. "We should help him."

"You're not giving him any of our food." Amy said quickly and sternly.

"Will, don't you remember those signs at the zoo field trip each year? Don't feed the bears? Those still apply here." Xander said more gently.

"Oh, poo." Willow waved him off. "That's just cause they feed them plenty at the zoo and they don't want them getting obese. Out here they need all the help they can get." And with that, she went into a gentle dive to meet Mr. Bear.

* * *

Giles was just finishing the last drag on his cigarette when the girls entered the kitchen. He shot a questioning glance at Buffy as he ground out the smoke. They had barely had enough time to stop crying by his own count. Indeed, Mrs Summers' eyes looked the worse for wear.

"Tails." Buffy explained. "Good for flying. Not so much for sitting on couches or chairs."

Giles reached around for his own tail without even thinking about it. _No,_ he supposed as he felt the place where his tail met his backside. _That would be about where one's arse would meet the back of a chair._ Aloud he went on. "No, I suppose not all chairs will be usable right now. But stools..." he spied a few stools around the center island. Backless chairs would likely be preferable for now.

"If you could take them into the living room?" Joyce asked. "I'm going to go upstairs and wash up for a minute. I'll be right back down."

* * *

Willow landed lightly just a few yards away from the bear and barrel. The bear immediately stopped trying to get to the food inside.

"That's it... nice bear. Just step away for a second and I'll get you all the food you need." she said softly.

The bear took a few steps away from the barrel and made a soft chuffing sound and clacked its teeth together a few times. Willow figured this meant the bear was hungry but understood what she was trying to do and was okay with her helping. She figured an angry bear would roar at her the way Xander had when she accidentally stepped on his tail earlier. But apparently the bear changed its mind because as soon as she took a step towards the barrel, it charged. And suddenly, there was the roaring that was missing.

* * *

"Are you sure we should be doing this, Giles? I mean isn't it, like, kinda stealing?" Buffy wondered.

"It is not 'kinda' stealing, Buffy. As a matter of fact, it _is_ stealing. However, seeing as we are no longer human, we cannot simply walk in and attempt to buy these things. What we will not do though, is take more than we need or needlessly vandalize the store. We are not criminals. We are merely outlaws."

Buffy smiled. She was in a much better mood now that her mother knew about and accepted her transformation. A couple hours of crying had been very therapeutic for both of them. Giles had even done the 'one girl in all the world' speech and explained how the stuff at Hemery had been vampires. "Outlaws in need of designer, leather apparel." she smiled as she delicately touched a beautiful coat.

Giles frowned at that. "Take only what you need, Buffy." he said as he started to gather up some clothing for himself. He doubted that the cost to the manufacturer of the 'designer' apparel was significantly more than the regular clothes. He just wanted to make sure that the quantity of clothing she took was reasonable. In his limited experience, mostly from the telly to be honest, teenaged girls tended to buy ridiculous amounts of clothing.

Buffy did what she did best and started her own 'shopping'. She was the expert and was in charge of getting clothing for all the kids as she could most accurately guess their sizes even on brief acquaintance in their new forms. "Giles, what's the difference between outlaws and criminals?" she asked as the threw a pair of pants in her bag for Willow. "Other than the lack of mass destruction."

"The difference between a criminal and an outlaw is that while criminals frequently are victims, outlaws never are." Giles quoted.

Buffy stopped shopping to look at the librarian. "Huh?"

"Uh, it means that uh, criminals break laws out of greed, frustration, or vengeance. Outlaws are those outside the law. We do not have the protection of the law, but neither then are we bound by its shackles. We take only what we need and in return we give all we can to make society a better place." Giles explained.

Buffy thought about that for a minute before moving on and finishing her shopping. After tonight, their group was going to look super styling. And the leather they would be wearing would stand up much better to gargoyle activities than the cotton clothing they'd been wearing.

* * *

"Can you carry the deer yourself?" Xander asked and received a nod in reply before dropping the deer and then folding his wings and diving after Willow. He didn't know what Willow was doing, but even he could see that the bear didn't look happy. And then Willow stepped forward and the bear charged. Xander needed to swerve around Willow so he didn't hit her, but that would mean he'd get to her after the bear and that was unacceptable. He let out the most ferocious roar he could to distract the bear and keep it from mauling Willow. Suddenly, a world that had seemed muted (even if it wasn't very dark and he could see almost everything) looked like it was bathed in bright light; and it even seemed as if time itself had slowed down. The bear certainly noticed the roar and paused to refocus on him. Xander barreled into the bear with all his strength and sent it tumbling... right into the nearby tent. Okay. That was a little oopsie. He hadn't actually been paying attention to where he had been aiming the bear. He promised himself that next time he hit a loaded bear, he would watch where he aimed it. And always treat every bear as if it were loaded.

Human screams and yells mixed with the bear's roars as two people in the tent and a bear tangled with them all tried to escape. Two people managed to crawl away from the mess as the bear righted itself and charged again.

Xander jumped forward to meet the charge but was held up by Willow grabbing his arm. "No, Xander! He's just scared and hungry."

The unexpected force turned him and caused him to stumble so that his back was to the bear when it attacked. A large paw swiped him from the right. He could actually feel his right arm break as the bear connected solidly. He went flying and landed in a heap many yards away. He didn't even have time to collect his thoughts before he felt himself being picked up and lifted into the air.

Xander looked back at Willow angrily as she carried him. He was not in any mood to be held by the person who had been the root cause of his pain. As soon as they were high enough, he pushed away from her with his good arm and started flapping his wings. Leaving Willow to contemplate the error of her ways alone. He looked back but the bear and the humans were nowhere to be seen, which was hopefully good.

* * *

Flying back to their campsite, Giles realized several things. One, carrying heavy things while flying was extremely difficult. Two, carrying heavy bags that were also not very aerodynamic just made it worse. And three, it was now late and the heat of the day that had given them quite a nice lift earlier in the night had mostly cooled off thanks to the ocean breeze. Both he and Buffy were flying completely under their own power. Luckily, he could draft off of her and let her larger wings do more of the work.

Giles and Buffy returned to camp each carrying large bags. Buffy's bags held enough leather clothes for everyone along with some leather-working tools and extra leather for customizing the outfits. Giles bag held lots of books. Every book he had that even mentioned gargoyles and a few books on magic and undoing magical curses. But he didn't get to look at them just yet. First, he had to take a look at Xander's arm. He made sure it was set correctly first, then made a crude splint and bandaged the deep scratches he'd received. "The healing properties of stone sleep should repair this." he said. "Just to be sure, make sure your arm is covered by your wing at sunrise.

"It seems you've also instinctively found one of a gargoyle's main weapons. Fear." Giles said when he heard Xander's story about how his roar made the bear pause. "Buffy does it with quips, but giving your enemies pause is a powerful force multiplier. Whether that's against bears or vampires. Our entire bodies are designed to strike fear into the hearts of our enemies. From sharp talons to glowing eyes to our large wings and a deep roar." Giles snapped his wings out quickly, surprising Willow and making her jump a little. "It's good to keep in mind, but not good to rely on it. Which is why I was going to mention it much later in your training."

Next was a late lunch of venison. During which, he got to hear all three sides to the tale. While they talked, Amy experimented with whether the venison tasted better raw or cooked. The consensus was that cooked still tasted better but that raw tasted surprisingly good to everyone, including Buffy once she was coaxed to try it. Giles was very certain that their new bodies would have no trouble digesting raw or even rancid meat if they needed to scavenge. Their digestive tracts were likely quite a bit stronger than they had been as humans. They were certainly able to hold more food.** Five gargoyles had positively demolished the deer that had been brought back; to the point that Amy was showing Buffy how to crack open ribs to get the marrow.

Then it was time for the speeches. Particularly to Willow, who had shown an astounding lack of common sense and a naïveté that needed to be sharply corrected lest it endanger them all in the future. Just to be fair, everyone was forced to endure a speech about all the dangers of the Los Padres National Forest including bears, cougars, wild boar, poisonous snakes, scorpions, and most dangerous of all: humans.

"Now is not the time to go introducing yourself to random strangers. Our safety, the safety of the entire clan, relies on our anonymity. Do not endanger that except in dire need. A bear trying to get a camper's food is not such and example. Bears are hearty creatures, perfectly capable of feeding themselves without our help." he fixed Willow with a glare for a very uncomfortable full 15 seconds before going on. "So, unless you are planning on eating them, leave the bears alone."

* * *

** An average small deer weighs ~110lbs field dressed and should yield ~45lbs of meat. ( ) Divided by 5 gargoyles, is 9lbs each. Comparing gargoyles to wolves instead of humans for metabolic rate, wolves need 7lbs of meat per day to stay healthy and can eat 22+lbs at one sitting. (per International Wolf Center) So downing one deer per day for the clan should be fairly typical.

A/N: Giles' quote about outlaws is from Still Life with Woodpecker by Tom Robbins

A/N2: Black bears do not 'Roar'. The closest thing would be something like a bawl they will make when they are badly injured. A rhythmic pulsing sound indicates aggressiveness. Woofs (strong exhalation) and jaw popping indicate that the animal is afraid/uncertain. If it feels threatened, then it may attack.

And finally, My muse dines on your reviews. Please feed the muse. She is not a bear and cannot forage on her own.


	7. Chapter 7

Thank you to MasterRahl for being the latest to Recommend my story. That really means a lot to me.

* * *

Chapter 7.

Giles and Willow spent the rest of the night researching magic and how to un-turn someone from a gargoyle back into a human. They also researched gargoyles to learn all they could about their new cousins and themselves as well. Xander also helped them since his broken arm meant he wasn't much use to Buffy and Amy who were working on customizing their new clothing and he really didn't have much else to do.

"Okay." Buffy announced as she and Amy brought over their new clothes. "Here are your new leather jackets and pants. They should be better at standing up to fighting and training than what we were wearing. Also, they're all black, so those of us who don't like their coloring can better hide that fact." she smirked at Xander. Then she demonstrated how to put on the jackets. They even had reinforced holes in the elbows for their elbow spikes.

Xander noticed something as Buffy put on her jacket. Something that he, as a teenaged male should have noticed long ago, but hadn't with all the strangeness going on. Buffy didn't have any breasts. Well, not like she'd had as a human. She wasn't wearing a bra so he could see her nipples through the fabric of her shirt but there was none of the soft plumpness behind it that he had so admired whenever he thought she, or any other girl, wasn't looking. He surreptitiously checked on Amy and Willow as well and found them similarly bereft. He sighed. A life without the sun and without boobies even though he lived in southern California. Fate was a cruel mistress it seemed. He turned his attention back to Buffy.

"Okay, as you can guess, there's no way to easily thread our wings through any sized hole in a jacket. It's much easier to just cut all the way through." she put the jacket on to show how three strips of leather now hung on either side of her folded wings and down her back between them. "And underneath the webbing-"

"It's called a membrane." Giles interrupted.

"Membrane. Whatever. Underneath it, two snaps keep it secure but allow for easy removal when you want without damaging the coat."

"Xander, you'll get yours tomorrow, once your arm is healed." Amy said.

"The biggest problem is that we've got these big, gaping holes in the coats where the _membrane_ comes through and runs down our sides. You can hold them closed with your wings like this," Buffy demonstrated pulling her wings tight to her sides, "but nothing's holding them closed when you're flying. I'll have to figure out how to fix that later. For now, I gave them a stiff seam so they wouldn't flap as much when we fly." Buffy shrugged. "The pants were a little easier. There's a button in the back over a hole for your tail. You can't see it but you can reach it to fasten it yourself easy enough." Buffy turned and pointed out the new hole around her tail and the button over it, holding her pants up. The pants similarly had holes in the knees for everyone's knee spikes. They also only came down to the false knee, where the foot/ankle bent forward and looked kind of like a backwards facing knee.

Buffy handed out the clothing. Giles took off his tweed jacket and replaced it with the new leather one. He did leave his undershirt on though. No one noted that he surreptitiously checked to make sure there weren't any holes on the inside of that shirt's left arm. Not that any of the children would likely care that he had a tattoo there from his youth. Or know what it meant.

Then, everyone but Xander got to try out their new clothing in a training session with Giles. Though he did watch and imitated as much as possible without contact. Even so, his arm ached horribly. Finally, sunrise came and blissful sleep.

* * *

Xander woke the next evening feeling great. He took off the splint and moved his arm, then tested it by hitting his hand into his palm. No pain. He had to admit, healing a broken arm in a day was a pretty neat trick and a nice pro to balance out the cons of stone sleep.

"I'm sorry, Xander. Is your arm better now?" Willow asked meekly.

Xander sighed. "Forget it. Just don't do it again."

Willow nodded enthusiastically and smiled a fangy smile. "Oh, I learned my lesson. Bears are food, not friends. Got it."

He opened up his arms and she rushed in for a Xander-hug. (Patent Pending) It was slightly different with their wings and their strength. You had to hug a gargoyle more up near the head and/or be careful of your strength. Wings are fragile and easy to damage.

After Xander dressed in his new leathers, they all took off and headed for Sunnydale.

* * *

Giles bought a paper out of a newspaper machine. He handed part of it to Willow. Xander got a peek at a headline about campers – nicknamed the Goldilockses – that claimed to have been attacked by three bears the night before. Willow blushed and folded it away. Nothing more was said about the incident though. With that, the clan took to the air again to fly over to Buffy's house.

Joyce did a very good job of hiding her shock/fear at having five rather scary monsters on her porch, but quickly waved them all in without actually saying the words. It seemed as though Buffy and Giles' speeches/warnings to Joyce had taken hold pretty well. Xander noticed he had to duck just a little going through the doorway and still managed to catch his wings on the top of the door frame. He wondered just how tall all of them were now. Buffy was now as tall as her mother, which she hadn't been even close to a few weeks ago, when they'd first met each other. And Buffy was currently barefoot while her mother was wearing low heels.

"Wow." Joyce broke the silence. "You all look very nice in your new outfits."

"Thank you." Giles answered. "Buffy picked them out and did much of the designing and work in modifying them to fit our new forms."

Buffy was torn between being mortified or proud at being praised in front of her mother and her friends like that. Blushing worked as a reaction either way. Though it was hard to tell with her green/brown coloring.

"Who's hungry?" Joyce asked, sparing her daughter any further shame.

* * *

After the meal, the gargoyles prepared to launch themselves (very carefully) from the Summers' roof.

"I think I ought to take each of you out to train you 1-on-1 in the slaying of vampires and other demons." Giles announced. "Willow, why don't you come with me first? Buffy, as you have the most experience, you take point in your group." Then he and a nervous Willow took off from the chimney.

Willow flew slightly below and behind Giles, drafting off of him to save energy. "This is about the bear again, isn't it?" She had to repeat herself a bit louder again before he heard her. The fact that he was in front of her and the noise from the wind serving to make it harder for him to hear her.

"Actually, no. You've learned your lesson from that already, I believe." Giles said, looking back. "I wanted you to come with me first because I wanted you children to learn proper slaying techniques from me before you learned the wrong techniques from Buffy and I figured that you would the best to start with as Xander and Amy both have their own ideas already about how to fight. They would thus be harder for Buffy to corrupt."

"Corrupt?" Willow asked with a smirk in her voice even if he couldn't see her right now.

Giles sighed. "Buffy is- _was_ an interesting Slayer. And like all Slayers she took to martial arts training quite readily and developed her own system out of the many she was taught. Her system, however... how do I put this? It's too... showy. There are far more leaps and backflips and spins than a Slayer normally has. She's also rather inefficient. What I plan on showing you is: find a demon, slay the demon, move on. Buffy tends to play with her victims overmuch."

"Oh. Okay." Willow replied, unsure of exactly what was about to happen, but trusting him to guide her.

They were both silent until Giles spotted a vampire and dove for him, Willow right behind him. Willow was reminded very intently of the attack Xander used to save her from the bear when Giles plowed into the vampire, sending him sprawling – all except for the lack of a roar. Giles landed where the vampire had been and Willow landed next to him.

"Now, normally, I would prefer to just dust him on the first attack. But that's your job." he handed her a stake. "He's stunned right now. I do suggest you hurry. And remember if you stake his heart quickly, then he won't have a chance to hit you back."

It was Willow's turn to be stunned. A few nights of martial arts training, then he just handed her a stake and told her to aim for the heart? She gave a start as she realized the vampire was getting up and she had just missed her best chance to dust him. The vamp spotted her standing there with a stake and charged. Willow was reminded for the second time that night of the bear charging at her though the vamp was already on two feet and had a viciously clawed hand back to swipe at her. But this time, there was no Xander coming to save her. She was on her own. Her eyes flared red as adrenaline flooded her body. Time seemed to slow down just a bit. She realized that the vampire with its hand back for the attack was leaving his chest rather unprotected. She plunged her stake forward then closed her eyes and waited for the inevitable blow.

The blow never came.

"Perfect." Giles came out from behind a tree in front of Willow. Somehow he'd made his way behind the vampire without either of them noticing. "Other than losing your stake to the dusting, that was absolutely flawless, Willow." he beamed.

She beamed back.

"Next time, pull your stake out during that half second before the vampire dusts so you can reuse it. Otherwise I have absolutely no other pointers to give you." he paused. "Don't take this the wrong way and please don't tell Buffy. You might never be the fighter that Buffy or Xander are going to be. But I think you would have made an even better Slayer."

Willow swallowed and nodded at the compliment as they used a mausoleum as a launching pad for more hunting.

* * *

Xander swooped down at the latest vampire they'd found. It was his turn. He glided up behind the guy, plunged a stake in, and raised his wings as he went passed the guy as the vamp didn't dust until after Xander was already pulling back up to rejoin Amy. They had carried Buffy back to her mother's house after her turn trying that move, because she'd forgotten about the delay in vamps dusting and hadn't raised her wing. She hadn't broken anything, but she was too sore for more patrolling and Joyce was more than happy enough to have extra mother-daughter time right now.

"We need longer stakes." Amy observed. "Like how knights would stab down from their horse at footmen with a big spear? We need something like that, except that our wings are our horse."

"I was actually thinking of air-to-ground missiles myself. But a lance might work too. Kind of bulky to be carrying, but it might be worth it."

"Yeah, a lance!" Amy nodded. That was the word she was looking for. "Would've been nice to have against that bear too."

"I think I needed the blunt force to knock him away from Willow." Xander countered. "But after that, yeah. Or if Willow had had one to begin with?" Then again, she probably wouldn't have been willing to use it at that time.

"When we get back to the forest, we should start work on some. Might be good for hunting too." Amy decided.

* * *

"Thank you, Mom. But really. I'm fine. Just too sore to want to go flying all over the place when there are four others who can do it for me. And I'll feel great when I wake up tomorrow night." Buffy insisted as she sipped her hot chocolate.

Joyce just gave her a tight smile. "I don't care if you're 15 or 80; human, slayer, gargoyle, or one-eyed one-horned flying purple people eater. It's a mother's prerogative to worry. So I'm going to worry."

Buffy giggled at her mother's joke. "Xander's the purple one. And he has both eyes and four horns." she pointed out. "But you can worry less now. Cause gargoyle healing? Awesome. Last night Willow decided that some bear reminded her of Yogi. But it didn't like the comparison."

"Oh my gosh, it attacked Willow? And she looks fine today." Joyce was shocked.

"It never touched her actually. Xander was there in a flash and knocked the thing away from her. Just like he did for me tonight. He got a broken arm for his trouble though, which was healed when we woke up today. He got the broken arm from playing with the bear last night, not from the vampire." Buffy explained her disjointed babble.

Joyce was nonplussed. "Let me get this straight. Last night, Xander saved Willow from a bear attack and broke his arm doing so. And tonight, he saved you after you crashed into a vampire?"

"Mostly. I dusted the vamp I was after, he just wasn't dust when my wing tried to go through him. I just didn't know about the other vamp that was hiding behind a mausoleum. Xander dusted that one for me while I was getting the number of that train."

They were quiet for a bit while Joyce processed that information. She took a sip of her tea before speaking. "I'm closing the gallery."

"Mom. Please-"

Joyce held up her hand to stop any debate. "I'm selling off what inventory I have and breaking my lease. There's another gallery in town that's interested in hiring me. They close at sundown anyway, so I'll be home whenever you need me. And this isn't because you transformed. Or not _just_ because you transformed. Opening a gallery is a lot of work. It takes a lot of investment. Of time, not just of capital. And if I had found out and believed that you were the Slayer right now, I would have done the same thing. I need to be here for you right now much more than I need the promise that maybe someday I'll make more money than I can right now."

"Mom. Are you sure? The gallery was, like, your dream." Buffy queried.

"_You_ are my dream. There is nothing more important in my life than you. I want you to know that forever, Buffy." Joyce said seriously.

Big, emotional hug time.

"Can I ask you another question?" Joyce wondered, not letting go.

Buffy just nodded.

"How long do you think it will take Mr Giles to find your... cure?" Joyce refused to ask whether she would _ever_ be cured.

"Um, well... Giles seems pretty good at this research thing. He found out about the Harvest and the Master pretty quick. But I really haven't known him that long. Why?" Buffy had a feeling she wasn't going to like the answer.

"Sheila Rosenberg called today asking where Willow was. I had to tell her the truth that Willow had never slept over here. They're going to declare her missing tomorrow morning. Amy's already been declared missing. It will look... odd if I don't do the same for you. Are you okay with that?" Joyce tensed, waiting for the accusations.

Buffy let out a sigh of relief. "What? Yeah. Go for it, Mom. We all already discussed it as a clan and I figured you already had. Oh, and if you could... Xander would like you to remind his parents to declare him missing too. He doesn't trust them to remember on their own, I guess. I thought it was something serious. By the way, if you're asked, Giles would like you to say that you met him and don't think he's capable of anything 'nefarious'. His word, not mine. He's worried he's going to get blamed for the disappearances since we all disappeared together. Something about English people and the family name. Giles explained it, but I kinda tuned out."

"I know the feeling." Joyce said dryly.

Buffy opened her mouth to retort, but could only giggle and fall into her mother's arms. It was true after all. Some things didn't change no matter what her form was. And snuggling with her mother still made her feel good.

* * *

A/N: "Bears are food, not friends." Why is it, that in a cartoon with talking fish and hippie sea turtles, that the sharks who are trying not to eat other fish, bug me the most?

A/N2: Do not own Yogi the Bear or associated characters. I don't even own a pic-i-nic basket.

And finally, information on my thoughts on the evolution of gargoyles and why the girls do not have boobs can be found on the series info screen on TTH. (tthfanfic Series-2954)


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8.

Getting back to the forest that night, all the children set off to start making their own weapons. Giles looked over at where Xander and Amy were making very long spears. He didn't try to dissuade them at all. Nor did he deter Buffy and Willow from making some smaller spears. Theirs were only about 3 feet long or so. He frowned, thinking they were a bit too short to be used as spears while flying.

"They're javelins." Buffy explained when he stared for too long. "I decided I want to try staying out of reach this time."

Giles nodded. Now it was clear. "Ah. You should taper one end a bit more than the other then. The heavy end is the head. That will keep them flying straight instead of going sideways." he advised.

Once their weapons were ready, he sent the children out to hunt while he did research. Secure in the knowledge that there was very little in the forest that could harm a pack of four gargoyles, especially as they were now even better armed than normal, young and untrained though they might be. And the best way for them to learn was to actually go out and hunt by themselves.

* * *

Amy decided that lances were not the optimal weapon for flying monsters. Transporting them was tricky. They could be held underneath you easily enough to cut wind resistance going forward, but then their momentum and wind resistance while turning reduced your maneuverability a lot. It was just plain hard to turn while carrying those poles. Still, it might be worth it for hunting. They were hunting bear this time and had already passed over a couple herds of deer. They were in the same area they had encountered the bear the other day. And this time, Willow wasn't going to try to make friends.

Buffy was the first to spot the bear. She waggled her wings back and forth a few times to get everybody's attention then pointed. The bear was moving slowly and possibly limping slightly. There was a good chance that this was their bear. By prior agreement, Xander had first crack at the bear as he had unfinished business with this animal. Then Buffy as she wanted to try out her javelins. If it was still alive after that, Amy could test her spear out too. If it survived that, Willow had some javelins of her own though she wasn't sure how good she would be with them.

Xander turned and dove at the bear, adjusting his lance to aim at the bear's heart. This wasn't just revenge or just a hunt. This was also a test of the weapons they'd made to see how they might work against vampires and demons. The biggest trick was going to be hitting the heart and pulling the lance out again before it dusted along with the vampire. He stabbed forward with the lance just as he reached the bear and tried to pull it back again, but he was moving too fast and couldn't pull the wooden tip back out. The lance was ripped from his hands and stayed with the bear. Worse, it didn't feel like it had gone in very far and had only made the bear angry while alerting it that predators were after it. The bear gave a roar of pain and turned to face whatever had stabbed it.

Luckily, Xander still had plenty of speed and simply pulled up and out of reach of the angry bear. Which was Buffy's cue. She dove and readied a javelin in her right hand. She had to hold it in a slightly odd grip to avoid stabbing her own wings. It also meant she couldn't draw it all the way back since her arm hit the forward edge of her wing, but between her gargoyle strength, her diving speed, and gravity, she was pretty sure she'd have enough power to put down this bear; which was a lot bigger than she'd thought it would be from the descriptions. The bear was worrying the wound where Xander's huge spear (compensating much?) was still lodged in its side. She drew back her arm and released, just as the bear finally worked the lance free and turned. Its turning made Buffy miss her intended target and when her javelin should have gone right through the heart, it instead lodged deeply in its shoulder. She at least had the satisfaction of knowing hers went deeper as she pulled up. And if Amy missed like Xander did, then she and Willow still had two more shots each while they had none.

Amy dove. Instead of the way Xander had been holding his lance in his hand as he tried (and failed) to retrieve it, she couched her lance under her shoulder giving the lance extra grip to turn her momentum into piercing power on the bear's hide. She bore down on the bear and slammed her lance home. It felt like her lance had hit a brick wall but she held on tightly. If she didn't, the back of the lance was going to go through her wing. She watched in slow motion as the lance slid into the bear and then started slowing and flexing as her momentum and the bear's fought each other. And then the battle was over... the lance lost.

SNAP!

There wasn't any pain. She knew there should have been pain but there just wasn't any. There _was_ a lot of shouting though she couldn't make out any of it. She looked over and the bear was well and truly dead not far from her. The lance that had briefly connected them was broken again, this time intentionally. The three gargoyles were arguing over her.

"She's been stabbed." Buffy said. "We need to get it out of her!"

"No! We need to leave it in. It's staunching the blood flow. She'll die if we take it out!" Willow countered.

"This coming from the girl who tried to make friends with a bear?" Buffy indicated the dead animal next to them.

"That was different. I never studied bears. I've studied first aid. All of us first aid certified, raise your hand." Willow said. She and Xander both raised theirs.

"Xander?" Buffy queried.

"If I remember right, Willow's right. You're supposed to leave the object in until you get medical attention." Xander said much more calmly than either girl.

"Exactly. _Medical attention._ Which we have none of out here." Buffy pointed out. Everyone else fell silent.

"The sun." Amy whispered.

Xander snapped his fingers. "The sun will heal her. All we have to do is pull out the stick just before sunrise!"

"Do we move her?" Buffy wondered. "Maybe Giles will have a better idea."

"We don't move her unless we absolutely have to." Willow shook her head. "But it would be a good idea for you to go fetch him. He should know so he doesn't worry and he might have some good ideas too. But we won't try moving her until much closer to sunrise."

Before Buffy left, Amy grabbed her arm. "Sorry about ruining the jacket you gave me." she gave a small smile. Buffy assured her she would make her a new one.

* * *

Giles and Buffy arrived back and found Willow had gone off to get Amy some water as she was kind of thirsty. Giles had to take Xander's vitals (because Xander had been resting while he and Buffy had just been flying) to establish a baseline before he could take Amy's. He found that hers were fairly close to Xander's and hoped that meant she was doing well. As there were no experts on gargoyle physiology he could ask, that was the best they could do. That and make her comfortable. Xander was already well on his way to that. He had laid her on her good side and placed his jacket under her head to act as a pillow. He was telling her the story of how they had stopped the Harvest to keep her mind awake and occupied.

"I had wondered what happened to him. I understand why you couldn't tell me." Amy laid a comforting hand on his as he reached the part about staking Jesse. "Thank you for telling me."

Just then, Willow returned from her water wanderings. "I don't know if anyone else realized this but we really don't have a way to carry water. I had to uh, 'borrow' this canteen from some campers."

Giles took the canteen and a pill and gave them to Amy. "After hearing about Xander's incident, Mrs. Summers insisted that I take her bottle of ibuprofen. We'll start with one for now and see how gargoyle physiology deals with it. I would rather not be testing this on you while injured but it appears we have no choice. Let me know if you feel any different." Willow also took a pill to act as a guinea pig. If she had a reaction too, then they would know for sure.

The rest of the night passed very slowly for everyone. Eventually, Buffy even told everyone the story of how she'd been called at Hemery, about Merrick dying to save her, and about burning down the gym to kill Lothos. Not a story she had been planning on telling the others. Ever. But they were all so starved for entertainment and stimulation. Giles even told a few tamer stories from his own youth. He was less worried about melancholy than he had been that first night, the children had since proven themselves to be extremely resilient. But a winter night held a lot of time to fill for gargoyles.

They were, all of them, used to a full school day filled with things of greater or lesser importance to distract them. And then after school it was home to do homework and watch TV; and for some of them, to go patrolling. All of them suddenly found themselves with a little over 13 hours of completely unstructured time and the lack of televisions in Los Padres Forest nixed one of the ways they all dealt with unexpected free time. Not that there was anything worth watching on when they would be watching anyway seeing as the times with halfway-decent programming were when people were still awake, which was when they did most of their patrolling.

And it was even worse when they were all trying to be supportive of Amy as she laid there. Buffy and Willow took to eating the nearby bear raw, possibly as their way of coping. Even Amy ate more than Xander or Giles who seemed to have lost their appetites with Amy seriously wounded.

Just before Sunrise, Giles yanked what was left of the lance out of Amy's side, advising her to get it covered quickly before she turned to stone.

* * *

Cordelia Chase was torn. On the one hand, in the space of a couple of weeks, three of the most annoying people in the school and the new girl who tried to kill her at the Bronze had all disappeared, along with the new librarian. Rumor had it that he'd killed and ate them before burning down the Madison house to cover his tracks. But whatever about that. What concerned her was that three of her favorite targets for sniping were now gone. And heaping the abuse on her remaining targets wasn't going to work. She'd actually made Jonathan cry the other day. Which wasn't her intent, even if she didn't feel sorry about that, she knew she couldn't do that every day or he'd probably snap. She'd have to think of something and soon.

* * *

Amy stretched as she stood up. "Mortal wounds healed in one day. A girl could get used to this." Willow brought her some meat she had scraped together from the bear. Literally scraped. A day sitting out exposed to the predations of the nearby scavengers after the gargoyles had eaten the choicest cuts, didn't leave much.

"Though your jacket won't." Buffy said, flicking the tattered pieces around the hole. "I'll have to sew it up for now. We can't hit that store again so soon."

Amy shrugged and licked her talons clean. "I'll live. And that's what's important."

"Indeed." Giles agreed. "And I think we've decided that lances are _not_ the way to attack vampires from the air?" _At least not yet,_ he thought. He didn't have the time to train them in proper lance technique right now. Maybe someday.

"Indubitably." Xander agreed with a slight, fake British accent.

"Javelins are okay." Buffy said. "As long as they stand still. Or maybe as a way of softening them up."

Giles nodded. "Be careful though. Vampires and demons are more dangerous than any bear. Weapons you throw at them can very easily be turned against you."

"Like, throw them back at me?" Buffy realized.

"That or use them as spears should someone land and try to take them on hand to hand after that. An unarmed vampire is trouble. An armed one, exponentially more." Giles said.

"So why aren't they all armed?" Xander had to wonder.

"Mostly it's superfluous. Vampires are so much stronger and faster than they were when their bodies were alive. Add in the fact that they come with ready-made weapons in their claws and teeth that most simply don't think about it. I'm surprised any of you thought of it seeing as we are in a similar situation with having new bodies with new, built-in weapons. It might also be to blend in with humans, which is their best defense. But also it's because using weapons on humans would lose them blood, which is the whole reason they are attacking in the first place." Giles explained.

Buffy chuckled at that. "Best defense? What do vampires have to fear from normal humans?"

Giles fixed her with a hard stare and then every one of the children in turn met his eyes. "Understand this, if I teach you nothing else. If Homo Sapiens are good at one thing, it's killing other things. We're- _T__hey're_ so good at it that they've made entire other species cease to exist without even trying. And I'm not just talking about Dodos. Take the European lion for example."

"There aren't any lions in Europe." Willow pointed out.

"Not any more. They went extinct around 100 AD, well before humans discovered gunpowder." Giles said seriously. Trying with all his might to make them understand the danger they faced if they were ever discovered.

"If humans are so tough, why are we keeping this stuff a secret? Why not just tell people about vamps and let them deal with them?" Amy had to ask.

"Because, in the past, when humans found out about the supernatural, it's not the most evil fiends around that are targeted first. It's the good and benign creatures that bear the first brunt. Along with the good witches. Basically anything that doesn't wish to fight humans is killed first and then they broaden their searches to kill off the evil all around them. _That_ is why the Slayer always works in secret and why we must do the same thing." Giles finished his speech. "Come Xander, I think you and I will go patrolling tonight."

* * *

A/N: Kinda breaking my own trope on this one. Those of you who have read some of my other stuff might know that I'm big on spears. I like them a lot more than stakes or even swords. But in this case, they just weren't the right weapon.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9.

Despite what Giles had shown him (plunge and move on), Xander just wasn't capable of ignoring the attacks of the vampires. His instinct to block and protect himself was just too strong. Still, he wasn't a bad fighter. Instinct and his new form combined to become more than any two vampires could handle. He also seemed to have a very good grasp of how to use his tail in combat, which became very important when he got surrounded. Still, after tussles with a few smaller groups of vampires, he was looking like he'd seen better days even if he was grinning from ear to ear.

They found the girls at Buffy's house. It didn't appear that they'd patrolled at all and had simply had a girls' night in.

"Xander!" Willow jumped up from the couch when she saw his appearance. "Are you okay?"

Xander gave her a look. "Of course. Just a few scratches."

"I'm very sorry to intrude, Joyce. But if I might remind your daughter and her friends that we still have a sacred duty?" Giles gave them a pointed look.

"We were just taking a break while I fixed Amy's coat." Buffy said defensively despite the fact that Joyce and the three female gargoyles were all huddled on the couch watching TV.

Giles looked and saw that the jacket was indeed fixed. "Wonderful. Now that it's fixed, might we try hunting demons again?"

Buffy frowned. "I've be- I was the Slayer for over a year and I never Slayed anything but Vampires."

"Perhaps. But this is the Hellmouth and as such, it attracts all manner of beasts. Why just tonight, Xander got what I believe is a Hychenian demon."

"Gesundheit." Buffy quipped at the nearly unpronounceable name of the demon.

"Yes, yes. Could we go now?" Giles motioned towards the door.

"Bye, mom. Thanks for having us over." Buffy said as she hugged her mom goodbye.

"Any time, dear." Joyce assured her daughter, sad that they couldn't stay longer.

* * *

"From now on, I'm taking one night off each week to be with my mom, Giles." Buffy stated as she walked out the front door.

"Yes, well, why don't we discuss this later?" Giles replied.

"I'm not discussing. I'm _telling_ you that I'm taking it off. In fact, I think all of us could each have one night off. Two pairs of us should be plenty to handle most of the-" Buffy stiffened and looked out into the night. "Vampire."

"Are you sure?" Giles wondered, looking in the direction Buffy was looking. Their night-vision abilities made it very easy to pick out vampires but the angle that Giles was currently looking left him looking at a coniferous bush that hid the man in question.

"No. But something's off with that guy." Buffy said. "Plus, whoever you are, buddy, you should know that we can see in the dark pretty dang well so that whole hiding in the shadows thing doesn't work on us. Come out so we can see your whole face."

The man stepped forward.

"Angel?"

Xander chuckled. "_This_ is your tall, dark, and mysterious?" Giles had explained that it was easier for them to spot vampires thanks to their improved night vision, but he was pretty sure he would have pegged this guy even when he was a human.

Angel readied himself for a fight despite- or maybe because of the fact that the monsters knew his name. He wasn't exactly a popular guy in town among demons. "Do I know you?"

"Xander, shut up." Then to Angel, "It's me, Buffy." She had to admit, she knew she looked different. But Angel looked different too. For starters, he'd shrunk. Or maybe she'd just gotten taller. Taller was nice. Then there was the fact that he was clearly a vampire. "Oh my god! Did you get turned?"

A lot of tension left Angel's shoulders with that question. He shook his head. "It's a long story. What happened to you?"

"It's a long story." she countered. She could be tall (yippee), dark, and mysterious now too. "But why don't you summarize your story for me? Give me the cliff notes?"

"I'd rather not." Angel frowned.

"Or, I could just dust you." Buffy offered and pulled a stake to prove it.

"Angelus." Giles finally spoke up. The name Angel and his face had triggered the memory of a daguerreotype in one of his books.

"That was a long time ago." Angel hung his head. "I got my soul back since then."

"Your what?" Buffy quirked her head to the side.

Angel furrowed his brow. "My soul. Listen, if I have to explain what a soul is to you, this is going to be a really long story." he snapped. "What _are_ you people?"

It was Xander that answered. "We are the terror that _flaps_ in the night. We are the bubble gum that sticks in your poofy hair. We are-"

"Xander." Buffy snapped, cutting him off. Then she turned back to Angel. "How does your soul change things?" she prodded.

"When you become a vampire, you die. Your soul moves on and a demon takes its place. But my demon crossed some gypsies and they cursed my soul back into me. I'm not alive and I get to remember all the things the demon did while it was in my body. But I have a soul and a conscience again."

"And you don't eat people?" Buffy clarified. She was pretty sure that Hitler had had a soul too.

"Pig's blood. From the butcher on 49th." Angel answered quickly. Mentally, he was going over the various sewer access points around the area and wondering if he could get to one before these- things got to him.

Buffy tucked her stake away.

"Buffy, are you sure?" Giles asked.

"He gave us some cryptic hints about the Master and the Harvest. I'm not about to invite him into my home, but I'm willing to let him live. For now." she turned back to the vampire. "Got any other quick tips for us?" Buffy narrowed her eyes.

"There's a new guy. He's fast. Metal claws. Don't give him a moment's mercy." Angel finally got to the reason he'd come here in the first place. He reached for an arm that was wet with blood and had several slashes across its leather sleeve. Then he turned and tried very hard to make it look like he was walking casually away when he was really scared for his life.

"Also, stop hanging around outside my house. It's creepy!" she yelled after him. Then she turned to the others. "If you guys ever see that guy or any vamp around here again and they don't have a _really_ good excuse, please dust them."

Xander raised his hand. "Can I dust him anyway?"

"Let's see if this Dr. Claw guy is for real. If not, then sure." Buffy said before jumping onto the roof of a nearby house and taking off for the school.

"Let's get dangerous!" Xander whispered as he took off.

* * *

"Ooo, that's not good." Willow said from her computer. "They found Dr. Gregory in the refrigerator at school today. He was missing his head."

"Well, that's more than I found." Giles said coming out of his office. "All I found was one oblique reference to a vampire who displeased the Master and cut his hand off in penance."

"Dr. Claw?" Buffy asked.

"Just Mister Claw. He obviously dropped out of medical school after he lost his hand." Xander quipped. "So, why would he come after a teacher?" Xander had to wonder.

"I'm not certain he did. There was an incident two nights ago..." Giles walked over to the table and picked up the newspaper. "uh, involving a homeless person in Weatherly Park. He was practically shredded, which closely matches the wound on Angel's arm but, uh, nothing like Dr. Gregory."

"So we've got two baddies?" Buffy clarified. "Well, we've got a location on one. You and Willow want to keep researching whatever likes to behead its victims? I'll take Xander and Amy with me to look for the Shredder."

Xander jumped up at that. "Let's get Shredder! _Teenage, mutant, ninja gargoyles. Teenage, mutant, ninja gargoyles. Teenage, mutant, ninja gargoyles. Stone by day, flesh by night. Gargoyle power!_"

Two girls slapped him upside the head simultaneously.

* * *

Cruising over Weatherly Park got them nothing. No vamps in sight, but a whole lot of homeless people. Xander hadn't known there had been this many homeless in Sunnydale. And here they were, all together like one big, vamp buffet. They even had a fence around the park high enough to stop most humans but not most vampires. Buffy pointed out the sewer access door conveniently placed to allow vamps to snack at their leisure. They didn't even need to move a manhole cover.

"You guys wait here with those javelins to give me air support. I'll go check it out." Xander said then dove to the ground. Luckily, the homeless people seemed to instinctively avoid the area around the sewer access so there were no humans around to see him. He started clearing some light brush that had been piled in front of the door in a bad camouflage job. His eyes allowed him to see fairly well into the darkness and could see the man with the claws long before he sprang at him and was plenty ready for the ambush. He jumped back to make sure the fight was under open skies where he would have the advantage as well as covering fire, should he need it.

The vampire swung his claws and Xander caught them. Not the arm behind them, but the claws themselves. Having endured a broken arm for most of a night with no pain meds had reset what he called pain. Yes, this freaking hurt. But catching the blades in his bare hand, combined with a feral grin and glowing eyes, really freaked the vampire out. Plus, he was pretty sure the girls above him would be impressed and that was the reason that teenaged boys did most of the stupid stuff they did. He clenched his fist, ruining the claws forever then pulled hard and tore the claws right off vamp's stub of an arm. The vamp clearly didn't like that and howled in pain.

Voices broke through the night. "Hold it! Police!" "Did you see that?" "I got nothing here!" "Look up there!"

The girls had been spotted. Xander looked up too to make sure they were heading away. They were. He turned back and found that the vamp had a good lead on him. Xander tossed the claws away then dropped to all fours for maximum speed. He had almost caught up when the vamp leaped a fence. Not a fence that Xander would have any trouble clearing, but there was a woman there and he was afraid that if he pressed, the vamp might take her hostage. He paused and watched from behind some bushes. The woman turned to face the demon, but instead of her running and screaming, the vampire hissed and took off like it was scared of _her_. It bolted into the sewers, not a place Xander felt like chasing it right now. Besides, this woman was far more interesting. Once she was a ways away, he hopped the fence too and started following her.

Halfway down the block, she stopped and turned her head so it faced behind her, far further than any human could turn their head. "You know, it's not polite to follow a lady home like that."

_Okay, very much not human._ Xander thought when the woman's head turned nearly 180°. _ But then again, who am I to talk? And if she scares off vampires, then maybe she's one of the good guys. _ He stepped out of the shadows. "Sorry about that. You kind of scared away the vampire I was hunting. I was curious who you were. And why that vamp was afraid of you. Do you hunt them too?"

"Sorry about scaring him off but no, I don't hunt them. They don't taste very good. They turn to ash as soon as you bite off their heads." the woman said. "Why don't you come to my house? I could _make_ you dinner."

"That's very kind of you." Xander said. He looked back over his shoulder and could still see the flashlights of the search party looking for that vampire. Plenty of flashlight beams were still searching the empty skies as well. He decided that inside with someone who didn't mind his appearance was safer. "Thank you."

* * *

Natalie French, as she introduced herself, had a very nice home. And made a very fine martini if he did say so himself.

...and she had such lovely, mottled green skin that reminded him of Buffy. But that could have just been the martini talking. Or maybe it was the drugs, he was pretty sure it took more than one drink usually to make the room spin like that.

* * *

Xander groaned as he came awake in a cage in someone's basement.

Cries of "Another monster!" welcomed him.

Between the hangover from the drugs and the yelling, Xander was not a happy camper. Especially not when he realized who his cellmate was. A stuck up jock with a severe attitude problem. "Blayne?"

"Who the hell are you?" Blayne yelled. "How the hell do you know my name?"

"First of all, I have a headache and very sharp claws. So stop yelling. And second of all, I'm here to save you. My name isn't important."

"Do you have a plan?" Blayne asked, quieter, but still too loud.

"Depends. What time is it?"

"Like two. Maybe three?"

"Good, we have time." Xander said and started working on the bars of his cage. He placed one foot each on their own bar and bent his knees. He took hold of a bar between the two and started pulling/lifting.

"What are you doing?" Blayne yelled. "She's going to come down here and catch you!"

Xander heard a noise on the floor up above them. "Now she is, you idiot." Xander contemplated the fact that people in Sunnydale seemed to have the survival sense of lemmings. Worse, probably. He'd heard that lemmings weren't actually as dumb as they were usually depicted. Unlike Blayne who was every bit as stupid as he acted.

Case in point, yelling "Don't leave me, man!" as soon as Xander had worked himself free of the cage, thus attracting more attention to the fact that they were escaping.

Xander wondered if Blayne was just too dumb to live. But he hit the switch to open Blayne's cage anyway. As the other boy scrambled out, a gigantic praying mantis started down the steps. Xander grabbed Blayne, opened one of the small basement windows, and shoved him through. Xander turned just in time to catch a gigantic claw in his left hand. The same hand he'd caught the metal claws in a few hours ago. The new attack opened up wounds that had scabbed over and created new ones of its own. Suddenly, that whole catching-metal-claws-in-his-bare-hands thing didn't seem like it had been such a great idea.

He roared in pain, and the room seemed to glow brighter. At the same time he found some new reserves of strength, pushing the serrated arms back away from him. Then he pulled the claws forward as he twisted and executed the hip throw Giles had taught them only a few nights ago. He didn't stop to see where she landed and instead raced up the stairs in a single bound and out the door. Outside, he leapt to the top of Natalie's chimney and jumped yet again from there before beating his wings furiously to gain some altitude. Hopefully, the search parties were all dispersed by now and he could find some allies up here. Or at the very least, get some time for the drugs to wear off completely and get his bearings.

He looked down as the mantis bashed through her own front door. Xander breathed a sigh of relief that he'd had the foresight (or panic-induced terror) to gain some extra altitude. He didn't know much about giant insects, but those legs she was walking on, didn't look strong enough to allow her to reach him. Now, if she had been a giant grasshopper instead, that might have been a problem. "At least she doesn't have wings." he laughed to himself.

And then the back of her carapace split down the middle and two sets of wings popped out.

"Must learn to shut up." Xander managed before he turned and started flapping as hard and as fast as his own wings would carry him. The telltale 'buzz' of overly large insect wings grew louder and louder behind him.

* * *

A/N: writing a fic about cartoons seems to make me want to keep mentioning other cartoons. We are the terror... is from Darkwing Duck. Dr. Claw is from Inspector Gadget. Shredder is from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Don't own anything.


	10. Chapter 10

A/N: I had some push back from readers on another site complaining about the lack of boobies on gargoyles. I wanted to let you all know that I have learned my lesson. Canon is sacred. I will never, ever attempt to change canon again no matter how silly or that it doesn't make sense. No, wait. Yes I will.

_It is said that all art is self portrait, yet we can only view art through the lens of our own psyche. Therefore, an artist may paint one image and his public see something else entirely. (Anthony Wharem)_

_Hodgeson's Law: Just repeat to yourself, "It's just a show. I should really relax."_

_Bellisario's Maxim: You shouldn't analyze this stuff too closely._

* * *

Chapter 10.

"Giles, we have to do something. There was a posse out there and it spotted us. They could have Xander!" Buffy cried.

"We _are_ doing something, Buffy. Willow is already doing her not-quite-legal computer thing and finding out all she can about this- _posse_ that spotted you, including where they're likely to take him should he be captured." the watcher said, rubbing the bridge of his nose. Buffy without a clear path was like a hurricane standing still, pent up energy just spinning in place waiting to be released. And until then she vented that energy at those nearby.

"Got it!" Willow cried at last. "The search party was organized by the Sunnydale Police force and will be taking anyone captured directly to the city jail."

_Assuming he wasn't shot on sight,_ Giles mused. _Still, they hadn't heard any gunshots, which was a good sign._ Aloud, he went on. "So, it really was official." Giles was slightly shocked. Still, the claw marks had probably looked like they could have been man-made. It probably hadn't even occurred to those in charge that there could be anything other than another human serial killer.

Buffy said nothing but raced to the roof and was off like a shot. The other gargoyles behind her as fast as they could.

* * *

Giles was the last to make it to the jail. It wasn't his age, he hadn't felt this good in years. No, it was his wings, or rather lack thereof. Despite being only slightly smaller and thinner in stature than Xander, he had the smallest wings of all the gargoyles. Xander, Amy, and Willow all had proportionate wings to their size, well, maybe Xander should have had slightly larger wings to accommodate his bulk, but he still had the second largest wings in the clan. But Buffy, the smallest of them in body, had the largest wings and was thus the fastest and most maneuverable of them all in the sky. And Giles was the opposite.

He landed as quietly as he could. Then listened.

"Thank you all for your time tonight. I'm very sorry that we didn't catch whoever was doing this. But trust me when I say we _will_ find who's committing these heinous crimes and bring them to justice." Someone was finishing an inspirational speech. Empty political promises.

"They don't have him." Buffy whispered excitedly and took off back in the direction of Weatherly Park. Not long after they were all in the air, she pointed. "What the heck is that?"

Giles looked and it looked like nothing so much as a giant praying mantis. And it was flying! He looked and realized that it's intended prey looked very gargoyle like.

"Xander!" Three girls yelled at once.

* * *

Xander banked hard and flapped just before the mantis reached him. The monster went flying by. _God, she was fast._ Not as maneuverable as he was though, insect wings had one shape and one shape only. Gargoyle wings were bat-like and could be reshaped in an instant, it made them extremely maneuverable though not quite as efficient as bird wings. And the maneuverability his wings gave him was the only reason he wasn't being eaten at this moment. She looped around and dove back at him and he twisted the other way this time. He knew he couldn't keep this up long. Noticing just how far she overshot him, he formed a simple plan to let her overshoot again and then dive to the ground and let her crash into the asphalt when she overshot him the last time.

Too bad she didn't want to cooperate with that plan. She flew up so she was nearly level this time and started her attack run from there. Xander was by that time plenty far away, giving him plenty of room to maneuver. He just didn't know what to do. He wasn't sure if he heard things or if the thought just struck him, but the words 'Top Gun' suddenly popped into his head. He pulled up hard, lifting him up sharply but all but stopping his forward momentum. Then he folded his wings back so he was falling right onto the mantis. He was going for her head, which looked like it would be easy to pop off, but she ducked. As she went by, he lashed out with his arms and his legs. His arms went through her wings like they were papier-mâché but couldn't hold onto the fragile things and only tore some tracks through them. His hind claws, not used to being used that way, caught nothing, but after tearing through all four of the wings, Xander's front talons deeply scratched her thorax as she passed. He watched as the mantis started losing height as her damaged wings were unable to provide the lift they once had. Xander felt gravity taking over then and snapped his wings open so he could glide down to meet her on the ground. With her already injured, he felt he could swoop in from behind her and maybe take her head off. He was very surprised when he saw Buffy land on the thing's back and tear its wings right of its body like some horrible child torturing giant insects on her lawn.

Xander was moving pretty slowly, his Top Gun move having cost him most of his momentum. He watched as Willow and Amy joined Buffy in the air while he let gravity help him build speed so he could meet the monster on the ground. Giles got there first though and was already engaging it with Buffy's javelins, keeping its massive forelimbs busy. Xander was impressed by the older guy's speed and ferocity. There were obviously hidden depths to this watcher-guy and Xander made plans to get more training soonest.

For now, he hit the ground already running on all fours. Reaching the battle, Xander took one of the creature's rear legs and pulled- until it came off. He staggered at the unexpected result. He had been hoping for a distraction, but that worked too. He tossed away the still-twitching limb.

The girls obviously thought it looked like a good idea as they all landed nearby, grabbed a limb, and pulled as well. Giles took advantage of the distraction and plunged a javelin into the mantis' chest. But it didn't die from that. Instead that only seemed to tick it off. It knocked Giles away and all three girls also came away with rear legs shortly after that.

Then there was just the body and the forelegs flailing wildly.

"Anyone wanna try beheading?" Buffy asked. "That usually seems to work."

"I'll get one arm if you get the other." Xander offered Giles who nodded.

They both rushed in and caught one of the super strong forelimbs while Buffy jumped atop the monster's back and pulled off its head. Except for some quivering, that was the end of the giant mantis lady.

"Whew. Good timing guys." Xander said to the rest of the clan.

"Good ears, Xander. I was surprised you could hear me yelling for you to pull that Top Gun move." Willow beamed.

"I didn't even know I heard it myself. Must have just barely heard it. Like one of those subdermal things."

"Subliminal." Giles corrected automatically. "And I believe we should discuss this in the air, before the authorities arrive."

* * *

Once they were airborne, Buffy had to ask what happened. Xander spelled out the fight with the one-armed vamp and the vamp being scared of a woman walking home with her groceries. How he'd followed her hoping for an ally but had instead been drugged and caged. His heroic escape, saving Blayne (he assured Giles that he hadn't spilled the beans about being a gargoyle), and then fleeing in a very manly and not at all cowardly way. Giles had the group go back to Mantis-lady's house to look for more of her kind. They didn't find any, except for some eggs which Buffy collected to carry back to their camp. After all that, Xander had earned his rest and the rear spot in the formation where he got to draft off of all the others in the flight. He was really looking forward to a nice day of stone rest after that.

* * *

Buffy handed off her eggs to Giles as the three women peeled off when they entered the bounds of the National Forest they called home while Giles and Xander made for the camp. Xander curled up in their 'bed' area as soon as he touched down. Until Giles prodded him with his foot.

"Get up. Time to train." he said.

Xander just groaned. He wanted more training, just not _now_.

"We are neither of us going to be able to match the girls in the air. Their wing size to weight ratio is far better than either of ours will ever be. Therefore, it behooves us to focus our training on being the ones that attack on the ground." Giles said.

"Tomorrow please?" Xander begged. "I'm really sore right now."

But Giles wouldn't budge. "Learning to fight while tired and/or injured is only one of the lessons you must learn. Now up and at them or I shall attack you where you lay."

Xander was pretty sure that Giles was mostly joking, but it wouldn't pay to test that, so he reluctantly got to his feet and trained with him for several hours while they waited for the women to return from the hunt.

* * *

"Sorry we were so late." Buffy said as they landed. "The first deer we got was small and the three of us kinda demolished it. So we found this little piggy instead. Not the friendliest of creatures, let me tell you."

Xander opened his mouth to say something but thought better of it.

Giles didn't hold back what he was going to say. "This is not a 'piggy', Buffy. It's a wild boar. A rather dangerous animal if you recall my earlier lecture."

"Sure. But it's not like he could get to us flying over him. Totally safe." Buffy countered playfully.

"Totally." Willow nodded.

"Very well. So long as you were careful. They are considered a dangerous invasive species and any game warden would likely to thank you for killing it." He paused. "I was about to tell you to avoid handling the raw meat when I remembered our new forms. Still, I would prefer if we could cook the meat anyway."

"Xander, what happened?" Willow noticed Xander's condition after several more hours of training.

"Training happened." Giles said. "And it's also going to happen to the three of you while Xander gets our meal roasting. Spread out, all of you."

Xander didn't even get out of the group training. Once the meat was going, he got a break every 15 minutes to rotate the food and make sure it cooked evenly. He was one tired gargoyle by the time the food was ready. He didn't think he'd even have the strength to eat, but somehow found the reserves to do so when no one volunteered to hand-feed him.

* * *

Sunset greeted them and they woke feeling greatly refreshed. For the first time since their transformation, everyone got to have breakfast before they went flying. Scrambled giant mantis eggs and leftover ham both kept cool and protected during the day in the shade under Buffy's wing while it was stone.

"Right. Everyone follow me to my flat. We'll meet Joyce there and start moving all my books from my place to her basement." Giles said when they were finished.

Meeting there, Giles let them all in and started piling all his books together for the others to carry. Joyce's minivan was very nice to have as it had exceptional storage capacity once the rear seats were removed, which was quite easy when you had gargoyle strength. Each of the children got to carry one of the rather heavy seats back to the Summers' home where they then helped unload the books as well. Then it was off to the school library again where they removed all the occult books that Giles had brought and several more that he didn't think needed to be in a public high school library. This time, at least, the children didn't have to carry the heavy seats back with them. After unloading the van a second time and returning Joyce's seats to their full and upright locked positions, it was time for a little late lunch/dinner.

"Thank you for allowing us to use your home as a storage facility, Joyce." Giles said as they ate.

"Oh, I'm happy to do it. Especially if it means you guys spending more time here." Joyce smiled back sadly.

"Yes- yes, I do believe that we will have need to use them on a fairly regular basis." Giles assured her. "Now then, I believe it is Amy's turn to come with me. The three of you are patrolling then?"

They nodded. Buffy had had a bit of mother/daughter night last night and wasn't looking to overdose too soon. And neither Xander nor Willow were looking for a break just yet. Though they thought it would be a good idea sooner or later.

* * *

By the time Giles actually got some 1-on-1 time with her, Amy had already developed her own style of fighting thanks to gargoyle strength/instincts, the group training from Giles, and patrolling with Buffy. Instead of a brawler like Xander and Buffy or just plunging and moving on like Willow did and he tried to do, she was a counter-puncher. She'd wait for the vampire to attack first and then counter attacked. With a stake if there was an opening, or with her fists if there wasn't. So while her fights took rather too long, much like Buffy's, she expended far less energy and took less damage than the former Slayer.

She was also very good at maneuvering her opponents when she faced groups so that only one vampire could attack her at a time. So while she didn't use her tail much, she made sure she didn't need to.

He gave her a few pointers, like trying for the kill earlier in each fight and trying to use her tail more. But then everyone but Xander seemed to forget about that appendage in a fight, including himself. And after that, it was up to training and getting real world experience fighting that would make them all better fighters. The good thing about being gargoyles was that they'd likely actually survive getting that initial experience whereas most humans would not.

* * *

After checking in with the other team and leaving Amy with them, it was time for Giles' other chore of the evening; contacting the watchers council. He had several reasons for procrastinating this long. Admitting defeat in that they were likely permanently transformed was one of them. Also, there had just been too much to do. Leaving the kids alone to make this call by himself had been too risky for their delicate psyches before now. Besides which, the council would likely take the same action whether or not he called yesterday, today, or in a week.

He flew back to his mostly empty flat used the phone very carefully. Accidental gargoyle strength had cost Joyce the remote controls for her TV and VCR already, along with several keyboards at the school. The other side connected.

"Hello?"

"Yes, this is Rupert Giles. Who am I speaking to?"

"Dr. Giles!" the other person exclaimed.

"No, _I'm_ Dr. Giles, and you are?"

"Oh, Penelope Clearwater. We thought you were dead. Another Slayer was called and you didn't return our calls."

Giles nodded, not that she could see that. A watcher going down with his Slayer was not uncommon though they were trained to avoid something like that. "I see, I'm afraid that means that we really were both dead for a bit. And after that, we both had to go into hiding. However, we're both alive and breathing again, though I'm afraid we'll have to remain in hiding for now."

"I see."

"The other Slayer. She's on her way here now, I take it?"

"Oh, um, yes sir." It was clear that Clearwater was fairly new and wasn't sure what she was and was not supposed to tell him. "To make sure the two of you weren't turned into vampires. You, weren't, were you?"

"No. Though if I were, I suppose I would probably answer the same way." he paused for a minute and took a deep breath. "I guess I ought to warn you that, though we are not vampires, we _have_ been transformed by magic such that we can no longer simply walk about in broad daylight." That was true enough and as much as the council needed to know.

"Oh. Oooh."

"We retain our human minds and the drive to destroy vampires and demons though. So be a dear and do give the new Slayer a heads up that not all that looks evil is necessarily so. I shall warn Buffy that the new Slayer is coming. I'll call back later tonight."

"I'll inform Mr. Travers."

Giles hung up. That could have gone better. Then again, he knew the council wasn't big on cooperating with outsiders. Still, they weren't exactly outsiders even if their form had changed.

* * *

A/N: Don't own Top Gun. Also Penelope Clearwater is not the girl from Harry Potter. Just liked the name for an English woman. I actually had to Google the name because I couldn't figure out why that name seemed familiar.


End file.
